A Time Portal to Germany, May 1945

I have written a bit about the 5 Hollywood directors who went to the front lines both in the Pacific and ETO for WW2.

And I reviewed the work of one of them, William Wyler, with the brilliant restoration of his unused film in making his Memphis Belle. There is more to write about these 5 fascinating directors, but suffice it to say there is a nice Netflix documentary, with commentary by 5 contemporary famous directors, on them.

That has to be a future post for me.

In the meantime on the F/B page, Hogday posted a fascinating video from George Stevens on Germany right after the war.

A Simple System with Profound Consequences

Among the many programs I have been watching on Amazon Prime and Netflix is a short series on airliner crashes over the years, with detailed explanations as to the causes. Actually in checking imdb, there have been many seasons but Amazon has just the first.

The accident investigators are interviewed, the controllers, and sometimes the passengers. I’ve seen 3 or 4 episodes, and it has been illuminating, not only for the causes but the pressures from the airline industry (which is understandable, given their investments). I’m thinking of the episode detailing the United Airlines 747, flight 811,  that had the cargo hold door explode from pressure over the Pacific.

Not If But When…

Computer Backup and Recovery

 

That was drilled into us from the time I went to a computer programming school in San Diego 37 years ago.

You will have a failure on your computer – either hardware or software – that renders all of the work you’ve done – sometimes for decades – gone.

It happened to me on my old Hewlett-Packard HP 3000 mini computer at work years ago once or twice.

It’s happened on my desktops at home maybe three times in 20 years.

A Good Interview About the A-6 Intruder

One of our own, Comjam, talks about flying and fighting in the Intruder.

Into Thin Air

Yesterday, some of us in the F/B group were reading Lex’s post on hypoxia. It reminded me of a time in the early 80s as a (then) active pilot with the massive experience of 200 hours, I was given the opportunity by the FAA to attend the Navy’s physiological course at (then) NAS Miramar. It was probably the same place Lex went to a few years later.

That day remains etched in my mind for all that I learned. As I recall all those years ago, it was comprised of 2 parts – the causes of vertigo and hypoxia, which is the body’s reaction to the thinning air at altitude.

Both can be insidious and sneak up on you,  and you aren’t even aware of it. Both can kill you if you are unaware of their effects.

Rome

Awhile back, I was writing about a well-regarded series I saw on Amazon Prime, Dead Like Me. I learned that the creator left after only a few episodes, over differences with MGM.

I was thinking a screenwriter’s life could sometimes be rather frustrating, with revisions sought by the studio and even actors. Like trying to write a book with a lot of fingers on the pie – “No, don’t make the character like that….this is how it should end…why do you have the character doing…this?”

One would think that if a studio is sold on the pilot, then let the writers keep doing what they want with a minimum of interference.

Judge them by their own creativity.