| | One day! Just one more! Planet wisdom draweth nigh!
Lol, yes, I am looking forward to it :D . I got lots done in school today. Well a good amount anyway. Its great to finally feel like your getting someplace. I have been trying to memorize some of the numbers I'll need to know for the drivers test. Let me see if I can quote a few for you...
In Arkansas you must not park:
More than 18 inches from a curb.
closer than 15 feet to a fire hydrant.
within 20 feet from a fire station.
within 20 feet of a crosswalk at an intersection.
There are a few more than that. But those are the ones I have down so far. I also did another collage writing exercise, and am reading an excellent book titled "Saddam's Secrets, How an Iraqi general defied and survived Saddam Hussein."
The book is incredibly fascinating! It is written by a man named Georges Sada; a man who can trace his family lineage all the way back to "BC" times!
The man is a incredible fighter pilot, flying the MiG 21 when he had no experience with it. His closest experience to the MiG 21, was with the MiG 17! Now, to us who don't know much about planes, that may not sound like that big a difference. I mean, it's only four digits right? But Georges Sada explains in the book, that in comparing the MiG 17 to the 21, the 21 is practically a rocket ship. Almost everything was different. Yes, it still had wings. Yes, it still had engines. But all the dials were either unrecognizable or had extra features that Mr. Sada did not recognize. He had no instructor to teach him. He had to get most of his help with learning the controls from four technicians. And, though a technician can tell you what a button does, flying an airplane is more than just knowing what switches do what. When Mr. Sada took off he didn't even know that he was supposed to use the afterburners. On the MiG 17 you didn't have to. He had no one to teach him otherwise. Some time later, when some Russian instructors came, Mr. Sada told them he had taken off without afterburners. The Russian instructors were shocked! They told him that it wasn't possible to take off without afterburners. And, indeed, it wouldn't have been possible had Mr. Sada not used up half his fuel in trying to take off, unsuccessfully, once before making it into the air. The loss of the weight of the fuel used in the first attempted take-off made it possible to get off the ground without the afterburners.
His story is really quite amazing. To be a close, part time advisor to Saddam himself, and yet very often disagree with a man who would hang you, or worse, on a whim; a Christian in a mostly Muslim area; NOT a member of the baathist party (and the baathists, for all practical purposes, controlled who got promoted and who didn't); and many, many, many other amazing things. Georges Sada's story is a captivating and quite fascinating one. I highly recommend it. I can't wait to have read the whole thing.
I might not make a post here tomorrow. I have to be at the pick-up point at 3:30 for planet wisdom. We will just have to see how busy I am and all that. |
| | Posted 2/23/2006 5:46 PM - 5 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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