I’ve noticed a strange dichotomy in the United States around how we collectively treat teenagers. On the one hand, we seem to coddle them — shielding our precious youngsters from adult responsibilities. But then we have American parents who apparently encourage their teenagers to take incredible risks, like in the case of Abby Sunderland, the 16 year old girl who attempted to sail solo around the world or Jordan Romero, the 13 year old boy who climbed Mt Everest last month. Both of these undertakings were extremely risky. Would these parents let their children spend a summer running a log skidder on the side of a mountain here in the Pacific Northwest? Because their chances of getting permanently maimed or killed is probably about the same (timber industry jobs are the second most dangerous in the US after fishing). I’m sure these parent would respond that their children had the training and equipment reducing the danger involved in either of these endeavors, but whether you’re crossing the Pacific Ocean by yourself or struggling up the Hilary Step, there is a lot one can’t control. Weather of course comes to mind. At the top of Everest or the middle of the Pacific, a sudden and unexpected change in the weather can be deadly. And one’s body can become the enemy as well. You never know how your body will react to being at 29,000 feet above sea level or how long you can survive acute appendicitis 1,200 miles from land.
This makes me wonder if parents often justify putting their children in peril if it could lead to a certain level of notoriety. This might not even be a trend isolated to the US — parents in other countries could be just as eager to let their kids engage in risky activities if they thought the payoff would be mega big, like a line in the record books. Of course this could just lead to a race among to parents to see who can push their kid to be the youngest to summit K2 or fly solo by balloon around the globe. Where would it all stop? At some point, I would hope we would all collectively stigmatize this trend as overly reckless, rather than encourage it but publicizing it so much.
June 15th, 2010
The picture above can only mean one thing: New party CDs are in their final stages. I’ve actually started mailing completed one, so be on the lookout for yours in the mail. Below is what the final product looks like.
June 12th, 2010
It’s taken weeks to arrange, but the stars finally aligned and I was able to get inside the former SAGE building at the long decommissioned Adair AFS outside of Corvallis. I’ve been wanting to poke around the place since it will be one of the Cold War sites profiled in my documentary. Edward Elkins of McMinnville, who served at the site in the ’60s, acted as the official tour guide while the building owner Justus Seely handled the logistics. For those of you unfamiliar with SAGE, it stands for Semi Automatic Ground Environment. Basically, SAGE was an integrated North American air defense system that operated from the late 1950s up to the early 1980s. At the heart of SAGE was the AN/FSQ-7 computer. Each SAGE center (like Adair) had two AN/FSQ-7s — one that was “active” and one on standby allowing for near 100% reliability. There were probably around 22 SAGE sites across the US and Canada at the height of the Cold War, but once ICBMs became the preferred method for delivering nukes, many of the SAGE sites were closed. Adair is unique because it operated up to the ’70s and managed the air defense responsibilities for a bit chunk of the West Coast toward the end of it’s service.
So what’s the building like today? Well first, I should confess to a major screw-up: I forgot my Frezzi Mini 100 watt movie light. For some reason, I packed the NRG battery belt and back-up bulbs, but not the actual movie light. This was a huge deal, since much of the building is sans electricity. Interesting story there: when Justus bought the building years ago from the local carpenter’s union, they took advantage of closing delays to strip as much wiring from the building as they could. They didn’t mess with the first floor, since that would be more noticeable to the new buyer, but the second and third floors were thoroughly ransacked, resulting in spotting power. So having the movie light would have actually facilitated decent filming. Instead, most of the video I shot was just dark shadows and flashlight beams playing across walls, which is kind of cool from an artistic angle, but it really sucks from a documentary standpoint.
But back to the actual condition of the building. There is still a significant “footprint” of the Cold War here. The basement of the site was basically a Civil Defense bunker. There are still moldy boxes of CD supplies and other artifacts strew about the place. And since there is no power down there, it feels like a vampire movie set. The first floor of the building, where the two massive computers would have been located, is mostly taken up by Justus’ flooring company. There are a couple of other tenants using this space for storage as well. Up on the second floor, where the operations room is located, there are more rooms that are leased out for storage. There is also someone living there apparently who serves as a caretaker/watchman. We heard his dog bark somewhere in the building, but couldn’t figure out where. That made things even more surreal. Oh, the other weird thing is the building use to be used for Airsoft battles, which is similar to paintball, just without the splatter. As a result, there are thousands, maybe millions, of these little white pellets everywhere. I thought some kind of massive bean bag disaster had taken place. The third floor is where most of the computer consoles would have existed. Of course these are long gone (maybe re-purposed for the set of Lost?), but you can still see where they were mounted to the floor. The lighting in these rooms was all blue and Justus did manage to turn some power on and some of the blue lights still work, which is super cool.
Overall, the SAGE building at Adair still tells a compelling Cold War story. It helps to have someone like Ed there to explain everything though. There have been some pretty significant alterations to the building, like the addition of a couple of windows and the partition of the first floor, but it’s still a fascinating (and often mysterious) site. Hopefully, I’ll be able to return someday with a lighting rig to get better interior footage. If that doesn’t work, I would at least like to go back this summer and get some better exterior shots since the rain yesterday cut short some of the outside filming.
If you want to see some of my limited footage of the site, please visit my Vimeo account here.
May 21st, 2010
I’m not sure how I missed this news item, but Kodak recently announced they will be releasing 100D in the super 8 format. What was not clearly stated was two current super 8 stocks will be dropped: Plus-X, a low speed B&W reversal, and 64T, a color tungsten balanced reversal. While 100D has been offered by a couple of boutique film dealers, this will be an official film from Kodak. A lot of us super 8 users have been waiting for a daylight balanced reversal from Kodak, it’s a shame it comes at the expense of two other film stocks. Plus-X is a classic and it produces a really contrasty picture. 64T is a stock I wasn’t crazy about when it was released, but I’ve grown to like it’s quirks. This stock really shines when used for open-shutter timelaspe at night, so I’ll miss it for that mostly. But I’m looking forward to using 100D on my Cold War documentary project. This stock seems really suited to Oregon, since it makes colors really “pop” even when shooting under overcast skies. My only hesitation is around grain. I’ve seen some of the super 8 100D test footage shot, and it does look a little too grainy for my tastes, but that could be due to improper exposure and development. Ultimately, I probably won’t know how useful this film stock will be until I shot some myself.
On another super 8 related note, I still have about a half dozen K40 Kodachrome carts sitting in the fridge. I think this is the summer I’ll finally shoot those and get them processed.
May 18th, 2010
With the death of my grandmother last summer, the Trumbo side of the family spent the subsequent months going through a mountain of photographs and letters crammed into disintegrating boxes. A couple of Christmas ago, my grandmother gifted me a number of World War II items from my grandfather’s service in the pacific aboard the USS Idaho. But about a month ago, my mother found another stash of photographs and turned those over to me to be added to the existing collection. Here are some of the ones I found more interesting.
View of the anti-aircraft guns
Target practice with World War One vintage rifles
Vought OS2U Kingfisher used to direct shore bombardment. Launched from a catapult aboard the Idaho.
Funeral for two Kingfisher crewmen — the only casulties suffered during the war
Refueling at sea
April 6th, 2010
A recent Portland Tribune article chronicled Oregon Historical Society’s (OHS) efforts to levy a “heritage taxing district” on Multnomah County property owners. Without some kind of cash infusion, from this property tax measure or some other money raising effort, the article suggests OHS will likely burn through its cash reserves by next year. I have to confess it’s hard for me not to feel a little bit excited about the prospect of watching OHS finally crash and burn — I’ve harbored just a sliver of bitterness toward the organization for better than a decade. So let’s flash back to 1998, shall we? I’m fresh out of graduate school with a newly minted master’s degree in public history and some museum/archives experience under my belt. After moving back to Oregon, I learned of a temporary position at OHS involving a traveling exhibit. I quickly applied and went through a round of interviews, which I thought went reasonably well. I was more than qualified for this entry level position and I really believed I would be a great fit. So you can imagine my disappointment when I learned the job went to someone else. But the bitterness part came into play when I found out the position was filled by someone who came from the travel and hospitality industry. WTF? This was just the beginning of many rejections I would experience while applying for mostly entry level positions at OHS. After a couple of years, I just gave up trying and abandon hope of working in the public history field here in PDX. But maybe fate was doing me a favor: the few people I knew who worked at OHS never seemed very happy.
I should just be clear about this, despite bad interactions with OHS, I viewed both the research library and publishing entity in a positive light — both of which appear to have died on the vine over the last couple of years. The actual “museum” part of the OHS has always been underwhelming (and what’s up w/ the $12.00 admission fee?). The layout is disjointed and the exhibits seem quaint. Portland has a rough, wonderful history that includes explosive racial conflict in the ’40s, full-on Chicago style corruption in the ‘50, and youthful social unrest in the ’60s…but I don’t ever remember temporary exhibits exploring any of these topics. Coming off of an internship at Chicago Historical Society (CHS) in the late ’90s, my first walk through the permanent exhibits at OHS was depressing. I suspect much of OHS’ woes can be traced back to its lack of true professional museum leadership. The recent crop of executive directors seemed stogy even by traditional white-bread Oregon standards. In contrast, my experience at CHS exposed me to museum professionals with vision. OHS always seemed so elitist, yet somehow they managed to still be disconnected from other, more successful, elitist cultural institutions. And as Portland’s population exploded over the last decade, OHS failed to engage that massive influx of new residents unlike its cultural institutional peers.
I kind of feel like we should just let OHS fade away due to benign neglect (isn’t that what we have been doing for the last two decades? Good job Oregon!) The best parts of the organization, like the research library and the publishing arm, have already receded into the background, so I don’t see the organization really being relevant in its present state, other than being a warehouse of artifacts and documents. Personally, I would like to see the current organization go through a phased shutdown over the next two years. The archival and artifact collection could be transferred to other entities, like the City of Portland Archives, the Oregon State Library, and other various cultural institutions. I think we collectively need to decide what a future OHS should look like. That process needs to be driven by the community, especially those historically marginalized, like African American, Hispanics, and Native Americans. Traditionally, OHS has represented “old Oregon”, which basically translates into “honky Oregon”. Let’s face it, OHS is something Oregon as a state should take ownership of and assuming the funding responsibilities. To lay the financial burden in the laps of Multnomah County property owners is totally unfair. Hopefully, Mayor Sam Adams will oppose this tax measure and let the clock run out on OHS. Sometime you just need to let a failing organizations completely unravel, which I think is a good idea in this instance.
March 30th, 2010
I recently finished a book written by B-Love’s friend Mac Montandon about jetpacks. It’s part history, part tale of an obsession with flying devises that can be strapped on like a rucksack. The most famous of these was the Bell Rocket Belt developed in the late ’50s - early ’60s (see it in action at the beginning of Thunderball). The Rocket Belt was somewhat simple in design, relying on hydrogen peroxide for fuel. To create the thrust needed to actually make a man fly, a single tank of nitrogen would press the hydrogen peroxide in two tanks out and into a catalyst chamber, which then created a superheated blast of steam. The Rocket Belt pilot used two hand controls to manipulate the direction of the nozzles, thus steering the Rocket Belt in the desired direction. Probably the biggest disadvantage of the design was the limited flight duration, which topped out at around 30 seconds. This curtailed the Rocket Belt’s appeal to the military, which would have been the main customer of this fanciful flying machine. But the Rocket Belt eventually led to a project that I found even more intriguing: The Bell Jet Belt.
The successor to the Rocket Belt, the Jet Belt, relied on a small kerosene powered jet engine instead of a hydrogen peroxide “rocket” engine. This new design allowed for up to 20 minutes of flight at speeds of up to 120 MPH with a range of about 20 miles. The Flying Belt was built around the W-19 bypass turbofan engine, which was started by a small explosive cartridge. The turbofan design offered a lot of power with little fuel consumption, which gave this jetpack the impressive flying time and range. Like the Jet Belt, controls were provided by means of hand-grips. Maybe somewhat similar to the Harrier jump jet, thrust from the engine was “vectored” by nozzles, giving the pilot the ability to go forward, backward, and rotate from side to side. Interestingly, the kerosene fuel was housed in clear plastic tanks that wrapped around the engine and held about six gallons.
Like the Rocket Belt, the Jet Belt was insanely noisy, making its military value limited (since it would be worthless for surveillance missions). In 1968, the Jet Belt program died and the design was sold to Williams Research Corporation, which later used an updated version of the W-19 engine for the Air Force’s cruise missile program. Another reason why the Jet Belt was probably unattractive to the military was the weight of the whole thing. Without fuel, the Jet Belt topped the scales at 124 pounds. This made it less appealing as a practical flying device that could be used in the field (although if made today, lightweight material could be utilized, like carbon fiber and titanium, to bring the weight down significantly).
While a few jetpack fans have successfully recreated Bell’s Rocket Belt, it appears only one man has tackled the far more complex Jet Belt design. Over in the UK, Richard Brown seems to be making progress on an updated version of the Jet Belt. There are still some real obstacles someone would need to overcome to make the design successful, like keeping the total weight of the jetpack reasonable and protecting the pilot from a catastrophic engine failure that could send fatal bits of fan into a pilots body, but I believe these technical hurdles could be overcome with the copious application of money and time. Of course the real question is why would the world even need a turbojet powered jetpack. The answer is of course it doesn’t fill any real need other than it would be totally cool.
March 22nd, 2010
The Obama administration recently pulled the plug on NASA’s Space Shuttle replacement plan, commonly referred to as the Constellation Program (CxP). This was a half baked concept hatched by the Bush administration a couple of years ago. CxP is also something I’ve been a critic of since its inception. However, now that the program has been mercifully euthanized, I do feel a tinge of sadness seeing all the great hardware headed to the scrap heap. Again, this is just another example of the old Bush administration’s mind-boggling ineptitude. CxP really lacked innovation from the start, which would have been critical for sustained momentum. To the casual observer, the program seemed quaint. It was often dubbed “Apollo on steroids” by Bush officials, which didn’t help the wow factor either. But what really sank the program was ballooning cost. Bush sold the program as an economical replacement to the current Space Shuttle; however overruns quickly started to spiral out of control once the project was under way. Before I go any further, I should point out what CxP actual consisted of:
- Ares I (rocket)
- Ares V (rocket)
- Orion (crew capsule)
- Earth Departure Stage (EDS)
- Altair (lunar lander)
The Ares I rocket was designed to carry the Orion capsule into orbit while the Ares V was intended to carry the Altair and EDS. The Ares I had already been successfully tested by the time the program was canceled, but many of the other CxP components were still being developed when everything got axed. So how will NASA get our astronauts into orbit once the shuttle is retired? For the short term, NASA will have to rely on Russia for rides into orbit. Of course the hope is Elon Musk’s SpaceX will eventually be ready to put their Dragon crew capsule and Falcon rocket into service, but as I’ve written before on this blog, I’m skeptical SpaceX will ever be able to pull this off. It’s too bad we can salvage the Orion component of the program and develop that to completion. I think if we modify the Delta IV Heavy rocket in parallel to a scaled down Orion program, we would have a decent shuttle replacement. Of course with Federal deficits being what they are these days, my predictions are NASA will not have a manned space in five years simply because all the options, including using private firms, will simply be too expensive.
February 18th, 2010
One of the reasons I signed up for Gmail a couple of years ago was for the chance to get a personalized email address, i.e. “ned.howard” instead of something totally random. But what I didn’t anticipate was email intended for other Ned Howards. I don’t get a flood of these misdirected messages, but they do hit my inbox from time to time. The highest volume appears to be intended for some fellow Ned Howard in Australia. My twin seems to be leading a far more adventurous, outdoor-centric life then mine, since I’ve received many messages from his friends offering photographic evidence of his many exploits down under. From the emails I’ve received, I’ve been able to deduce the other Ned appears to be young, well off, and an employee of the Australian government. Here is sample text from a recent email:
From: XXX XXXX <XXX.XXXX@development.tas.gov.au>
To: “XXXX.XXXXX@gmail.com” <XXXX.XXXXXX@gmail.com>, XXXX XXXX <XXXX.XXXX@fpa.tas.gov.au>, “ned.howard@gmail.com” <ned.howard@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Feb 8, 2010 at 6:23 PM
Subject: moula
Hulla hulla hulla,
Well well well three holes in the ground..
I’m back at work after a long weekend and it bites really.. Wishin for some muzza river loving, good aussie wine, workin’ hard at being lazy, no bite on the line.. my kind of paradise – a river and some bloody wine..
I’m not sure what “muzza river loving” constitutes, but the Aussie wine sure sounds good. Maybe this was a fishing trip? The rest of the message is related to car rental details that I’ll keep confidential (why don’t people use secure email?). It’s interesting to note my Australian counterpart is as often referred to as “Nedley”, which is funny because that’s the nickname many of my friends use for me. And just like Crocodile Dundee, these real life Australians say “bloody” a lot.
I should email all these people back and let them know I’m not the Ned Howard they’re looking for. But sometime these random emails are the highpoint of my workday and it would be sad if they slowly died off.
February 11th, 2010
Bomb Shelters Across the World
http://www.good.is
Brits Put Cold War Bunker on Preservation List
http://www.msnbc.msn.com
The Pulsing Heart of SAC
http://www.gwu.edu
Cold War Relics
http://coldwarrelics.com
February 4th, 2010
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