Well, howdy there internet people and bunny dropping locators.
It's troy again
Looks like the Lucky Charms guy was having fun with Trix rabbit and begot an offspring who loves to drop little colored packages in the landscape. Mind your step when you're out.
I slept in until 4:45 this morning. Showered and downstairs in the lobby with my Diet Dr. P so I don't disturb the roomie, here at the gaming con. My view:
Breakfast was 2 Wild Berry Poptarts so I don't have to pay 24$ for cup of yogurt and some bacon. Hotel food is pricy.
Sale-wise, doing OK at this convention. Since I'm splitting the cost of the hotel room, I've paid for the cost of the trip, and most of the food. Sales today should be profit to pay for the books with.
I won't say no to another convention booth, but I'd hoped for about double the sales.. This convention is lighter on attendance than I expected.
In other news, back to the Dali episode.
The reports I heard were that the remaining victims are probably int their vehicles, underneath the twisted metal and concrete from the bridge deck. I suspect they need to remove the debris to safely extract them without damaging the Dali further. We're probably in a zone where the practicailty and safety of the work crews need to take the precedence. Just my semi-informed 2 pence.
I did find a good channel to follow on youtubez.
"Sal Mercogliano, the host, has degrees in Military and Naval History, Maritime History and Nautical Archaeology, and Marine Transportation. He is a former merchant mariner, and teaches courses in maritime history, security and industry policy."
A Friend I was having dinner with started chasing conspiracy theories about missing segments from the "Black Box" on the Dali, the claim that t
he captian of the ship was Ukranian (he's not, though a Ukrainian did skipper the ship up until 2016)..., and it's hard pivot into the pier at the last moment.
Professor Mercagliano tackles most of those in the video above (it's about 31 min) and he links to some very informative resources from merchant mariners on YouTube that - while not ON the Dali, are experienced with the mechanics of such a ship. The vids he links are about how to start up a ship's diesel engine. What that black smoke likely was (blowing unburned fuel from the engine to be able to get it restarted)... and another on the ship's emergency generators, and what they might be able to control.
The professor explains based on his limited knowledge gleaned from those resources, possible scenarios and questions he has about what might have happened: Did the emergency gen have power going to the rudder? Or no power?
Other things he points out - with further questions - these "Black Boxes" on ships are NOT like those on planes. One issue is easily illustrated. The voice recorders in the cockpit are covering a much smaller area, say??? 20 ft wide and deep? While the bridge on a ship like the Dali can be 150 ft wide. Do all of the audio pickups retain power during a ship's blackout? What instruments retain battery power and continue to report to the black box? Are the "gaps" in the data recorder simply when the instruments had no power, so they weren't sending data to the recorder?
I suspect the current range of conspiracy theories some are latching onto are jumping to conclusions based on assuming the "black box" on the Dali functions the same as on a commercial airliner.
So, when friend comes down to breakfast, at least I have questions to guide his ponderings.
That's enough for now. Off to keep reading the internet.
