A new wing, cowl, prop, gearbox, engine, spinner and landing gear. Should fly like new… let’s find out!
Here’s the rebuilt plane… no decals on the wing… just screaming orange-pink tape (my addition, to find the bottom of the plane at a distance)
The pile of broken parts… so sad….
I bought a Hobby Zone SuperCub RTF R/C Model Airplane.
When I first bought it, it looked, more or less like this (after completing the final assembly steps):
Setting aside the difficulties I had actually getting it to RUN, once it DID, I took it out, flew it a bit… had a couple graceless, but harmless landings, and then *THWAP*!! Broke the wing.
Got some epoxy, repaired the wing, tried it again, mostly taxiing, and doing take-off aborts. Mostly successful, although I managed to create some cosmetic damage.
Then, I took it out this afternoon. Some hand-launches… with reasonable landings. A couple lightly clumsy landings. Then… as if it were not just desirable, but a sought-after and difficult to achieve outcome, somehow, I managed to nosedive it into the pavement from about a hundred feet up.
…so… If you’re wondering what I could possibly use for my birthday, here are a couple thoughts 
NewsUndies will be taking October 23 off, as it’s Paul’s birthday… We’ll be back with an all-new show on October 30!
Thanks to the RDF, Dr. Shermer and all the fine folks who put this together! Well done!
This makes me all the more regretful I didn’t muster the nerve to greet Dr. Shermer when I had the chance. He sat not 10 feet from us during the talks on Saturday night. I could’ve throwing-starred a business card right into his forehead… WE were at a VIP table (having plunked down the extra coin), and HE was sitting in the cheap perimeter seats. Not that I had anything to say to him other than blurting out with a stammering palsy, “Hi, Dr. Shermer… Thanks for … doing … what you do.” I get all paralytic and spasmodic around accomplished people whom I admire. I guess I’m lucky I didn’t just faint dead away at the AAI convention.
Hello, loyal NewsUndies watchers!
As the year begins to draw to a close (yeah, I know, Halloween hasn’t even hit yet, but hear me out) the plans are underfoot to create a “BestOf” DVD for 2009.
There are 8 more new weekly shows planned for this year, and some 28 weekly shows already produced this year, meaning a total of 36 weekly shows to distill down to this:
Here’s how it works:
Get your favorite shows in position by spreading the word, and sharing them with your friends and family! More views means better ranking!
The “Best Show”, “Best Story”, and “Best Moment” voting will be closed on January 10, 2010 at 00:01 AM EST, and tallied thereafter.
The NewsUndies 2009 Archive playlist is at this link: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=FB87C526B6FDD301
…and as usual, you can find the current and last week’s shows at newsundies.com and /www.youtube.com/newsundies
Get Voting! 
The email address for voting on your favorite stories and moments is bestof09@newsundies.com
All the news that shouldn’t be news for October 9, 2009: Happy Birthday, Jim Underdown! Atheists invade Burbank; Sarah Palin “Wrote” a book; Levi Johnson to show his; “Papa” John Phillips kept it in the family; Prosthetic pretend virginity; Chicago loses Olympics, but gains…well… nothing.
As first days at atheist conventions go, yesterday was pretty awesome.
Met Jim Underdown, Executive Director of the Center for Inquiry, Los Angeles… we chatted briefly and he was very kind to grant me a brief (and entertaining ) interview for NewsUndies.
PZ Myers gave a talk covering design versus evolution, excerpts of which may appear either on NewsUndies or my UrsusPacificus YouTube Channel. Didn’t get a chance to talk with him, but then, I wasn’t really expecting one.
Saw Dr. Dawkins and Dr. Dennet lurking occasionally. No chance to talk to them, but, again, wasn’t really expecting one… and… really… I’m sure my throat would seize anyway, if the chance did come up.
There was the live screening of Real Time with Bill Maher, which was agreeable.
The cast of Mr. Deity performed a couple episode on stage, and Brian Keith Dalton, creator, director and star of the show talks about his journey into atheism. That was cool.
Then Richard Dawkins (whom we’d just seen on Real Time) and Bill Maher showed up for Dawkins to present AAI’s Richard Dawkins Award to Maher. Dawkins gave what I thought was a fair introduction, stating that while he and others on the selection board did not necessarily agree with Maher on everything, particularly medicine, this award is centered on making a large, positive contribution to the advancement of progressive free thought and abandonment of religious dogma (or something like that… I have his comments on video, although the quality may be lacking.), and in that area, his film Religulous, as well s his outspokenness in other areas has been a boon to the cause.
Maher accepted the award (was there any doubt?) and talked about a few things we’re facing as a nation and as a species… did some relevant stand-up schtick, and closed by reading from Rick Warren’s “The Purpose-Driven Life”… which is both pathetic and hilarious at the same time.
We were then treated to a “comedy fund raiser”… $20 a head to see 5 comedians eviscerate religious dogma, faith and practice. Nice. Well worth the $20.
Then, of course there were the pleasant conversations, interesting merchandise and opportunities to do NewsUndies footage and network a little.
All in all a great time…. and there’s still SATURDAY!
…and my IDA Fish shirt got a lot of positive views and comments. So, really, it was a win-win day…
More from Burbank later…
NewsUndies in DA HOUSE, YO!
Well, we’re here… it’s kinda warming up… Met some vendors, and scored an interview with Jim Underdown of the Center for Inquiry! Working on getting more interviews, chatting with some fascinating folks, and hearing interesting talks.
More later…