Greece or Bust

We arrive at the Norfolk Naval Station, Virginia today. We will try to fly Space Available on a Navy plane today to one of the following posted destinations:

Brazil

Lajes, the Azore Islands, Portugal

Ramstein, Germany


Rota, Spain


Naples, Italy


Crete, Greece


Many of the planes are also going on to the middle east but Space A passengers are not permitted to go to these destinations. Otherwise we would try for one of these more exotic locations.

We will try for Crete, Greece. I will periodically post photos and updates on this blog when I can get to the internet and if I can figure out how to post from my IPAD.


http://travelhullinger.blogspot.com/

Norfolk is a former home of mine. I spent one year here when I was 18 doing a little volunteer social work in the inner city. I was also a Reserve Officer with CincLantFleet in the lat 1980's. Norfolk is an interesting town.

http://popv.blogspot.com/

One of my neighbors is convinced that I am CIA because of these trips.

Happy Cities

Interesting to see Cedar Rapids, Iowa, listed as a happy city. Glad they got over their major flood problems from a few years ago. It is a nice city, and residents should be happy.


Click to read the story:

Metro/County Census

Metro/County Census Results So Far

 US county map showing positive growth in blue, negative growth in red:

Rank	Metro	2000	2010	Total Change	Pct Change
1	Las Vegas-Paradise, NV	1,375,765	1,951,269	575,504	41.83%
2	Raleigh-Cary, NC	797,071	1,130,490	333,419	41.83%
3	Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX	1,249,763	1,716,289	466,526	37.33%
4	Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA	3,254,821	4,224,851	970,030	29.80%
5	Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, AZ	3,251,876	4,192,887	941,011	28.94%
6	Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX	4,715,407	5,946,800	1,231,393	26.11%
7	San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX	1,711,703	2,142,508	430,805	25.17%
8	Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX	5,161,544	6,371,773	1,210,229	23.45%
9	Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN	1,311,789	1,589,934	278,145	21.20%
10	Sacramento–Arden-Arcade–Roseville, CA	1,796,857	2,149,127	352,270	19.60%
11	Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, CO	2,157,756	2,543,482	385,726	17.88%
12	Salt Lake City, UT	968,858	1,124,197	155,339	16.03%
13	Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA	1,927,881	2,226,009	298,128	15.46%
14	Indianapolis-Carmel, IN	1,525,104	1,756,241	231,137	15.16%
15	Richmond, VA	1,096,957	1,258,251	161,294	14.70%
16	Oklahoma City, OK	1,095,421	1,252,987	157,566	14.38%
17	Columbus, OH	1,612,694	1,836,536	223,842	13.88%
18	Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA	3,043,878	3,439,809	395,931	13.01%
19	Kansas City, MO-KS	1,836,038	2,035,334	199,296	10.85%
20	Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI	2,968,806	3,279,833	311,027	10.48%
21	San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA	2,813,833	3,095,313	281,480	10.00%
22	Memphis, TN-MS-AR	1,205,204	1,316,100	110,896	9.20%
23	Birmingham-Hoover, AL	1,052,238	1,128,047	75,809	7.20%
24	Baltimore-Towson, MD	2,552,994	2,710,489	157,495	6.17%
25	Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC	1,576,370	1,671,683	95,313	6.05%
26	San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA	1,735,819	1,836,911	101,092	5.82%
27	Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT	1,148,618	1,212,381	63,763	5.55%
28	San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA	4,123,740	4,335,391	211,651	5.13%
29	Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD	5,687,147	5,965,343	278,196	4.89%
30	St. Louis, MO-IL	2,698,687	2,812,896	114,209	4.23%
31	Chicago-Joliet-Naperville, IL-IN-WI	9,098,316	9,461,105	362,789	3.99%
32	Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA	12,365,627	12,828,837	463,210	3.75%
33	Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI	1,500,741	1,555,908	55,167	3.68%
34	Pittsburgh, PA	2,431,087	2,356,285	-74,802	-3.08%
35	Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH	2,148,143	2,077,240	-70,903	-3.30%
36	New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, LA	1,316,510	1,167,764	-148,746	-11.30%

Click for more information from the Urbanophile

A Little Radiation Never Hurt Anybody

A Little Radiation Never Hurt Anybody


Of course a lot of radiation is not so good.


Who knows how many people will be injured or killed from radiation in Japan? Let us hope and pray for the best.


When I was a young Marine in 1967 we had some very high powered radars. Personnel wore badges that showed how much exposure to radiation they had encountered to protect them. The badges would be periodically checked to see the radiation exposure.


One of our Sergeants hit on the clever idea of throwing his badge up in front of the radar a number of times. The next time his badge was checked the radiation was through the roof.


They evacuated him to the hospital, presuming he would quickly become sick. He spent two weeks in bed, happily eating and chasing the nurses.


They figured out he had pulled a fast one, but could not prove it, so he got away with it.


After I got to Vietnam we were much more cavalier about radiation from high powered radars and radios. I spent a year on Hill 327 in close proximity to a lot of radar and radio transmitter emanations. No badges, no worries.


And now I need to start some more radiation treatments for a little problem I have. But fortunately I know that a little radiation never hurt anyone.

Home Values

Homeowners are more pessimistic about the short-term housing market, but now fewer than half the nation's homeowners expect the value of their homes to go up in the next five years.

Click - Just 44% Now Expect Their Home To Be Worth More in Five Years

Zip Code

Click to Find a Zip Code

http://www.zipmap.net/

Update From Tokyo

Update from my cousin.

Hi all,

We are currently at the gate at Narita waiting for our departure time to come. Still have about 2 hours to go. Airport wasn't too bad. But found out from one of the airport workers that European airlines have pulled out. Seems kind of wimpy to me (he says as he gets ready to leave the country - we are not running away. Just thought it was a nice time to take a trip for our Spring Break). Delta is great.  Delta even said we could change our departure and return dates at no extra charge. All of their flights are flying normally and they even bought in 50 more flight crew members to stand by. KLM crews just pulled out and left (according to the airport employee we talked to). I didn't see any check-in counters open, except for Delta, and they have long lines.

A friend sent me an email saying he saw on the news that some people in the US were buying radiation poisoning prevention pills. That's pretty extreme. Here, it's kind of like orderly panic. People are buying up all staple foods and gasoline, but they do calmly and without cutting in line. I've been telling everybody who asks me (and quite a few have been, because they know that I know everything) that the radiation danger is minimal in Tokyo. For the Fukushima Plant workers, there's a risk, but not us. But what happens is that some people decide they better stock up, other people see people queued on the TV news so they decide they had better stock up and it spirals into a kind of panic.

What we, in Japan,  really should worry about is the ongoing electricity shortage that this is going to cause. I'm sure they're going to have to modify every similar nuclear plant in Japan and that will probably require shutting them down (not to mention the loss of the 6 reactors at Fukushima - 4 that caught fire and 2 more that I'm sure they won't be able to use for quite a while).

Anyway, we're at the airport now. School was closed until the end of the month. Andrew had a plane ticket from his school concert tour that was cancelled. Akane found two other tickets online for a really good price and so we're going to visit our daughter north of San Francisco for a while. We're leaving today. Luckily I filled the gas tank the day after the earthquake, because the next day the lines were half a mile long at gas stations and they started selling out. So we were able to drive to the airport (about 60 miles outside of Tokyo). Now we either see long, long lines at gas stations, or no lines at all because the station has no gas left. 

Doug

Photos Before and After Earthquake and Tsunami

Hover over each satellite photo to view the before and after devastation caused by the earthquake and tsunami.

...PUT YOUR MOUSE ALONG THE 'RIGHT' SIDE OF EACH PHOTOGRAPH.....PRESS AND HOLD DOWNTHE 'LEFT' SIDE OF THE MOUSE AND SLIDE IT (TO THE LEFT) ACROSS THE PHOTO...IT WILL CHANGE FROM A PICTURE OF 'BEFORE' THE EARTHQUAKE TO 'AFTER' THE EARTHQUAKE. VERY AMAZING!!!  You can slide it back and forth as long as you keep the left side of the mouse pressed down. 

http://bit.ly/fowmc7

Infrastructure Bank

BIPARTISAN INFRA SPENDING?!
NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE BANK

National Infrastructure Bank

 Democrats John Kerry and Mark Warner joined Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison to propose the BUILD Act yesterday. The bipartisan legislation would create a national infrastructure bank the senators are calling the American Infrastructure Financing Authority — the term “bank” being anathema these days.

CLICK TO READ MORE

THIS IS A GOOD IDEA

CLICK TO READ MY SIMILAR IDEA

Well Being Map

Go Figure - The Map above shows that North Dakota and Wyoming are the places to be. Why not?  Nice people, low cost housing, and a climate that keeps the riffraff out.

Mapping the Nation’s Well-Being

For the last three years, Gallup has called 1,000 randomly selected American adults each day and asked them about indicators of their quality of life. Responses are converted to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. Here are the 2010 results, sorted by Congressional districts. 

Related Article »

http://www.planetizen.com/node/48539

Planning Jokes

Why Plan, When You Can React?


Stupidity does not constitute a zoning hardship.


Your failure to plan ahead does not necessarily constitute an emergency crisis for me.

Planning a major new airport is like attending the breech birth of an elephant.  It is very messy, you are not sure if it will live, and you can definitely get hurt in the process.

Things are never completely logical.  If they were, why, then men would ride sidesaddle.

The young veterinarian was having problems getting his business practice established, until he went into partnership with a taxidermist.  


Now, either way, you get your dog back.


Our Tried and True Forecasting Methods


SWAG - Selected Wild Ass Guess


PIOOTTA - Pulling It Out Of The Air


If you know the answer, PSOOTA - Pull Something Out Of The Air


If you have no idea what to do, Plan


Stop me before I plan again


Planners on Sex - It will be much better in the future


Click for More Jokes

Japanese Earthquake

The people of Japan are in our thoughts and prayers following the earthquake. The world is getting smaller - I know six people living in Japan. The following is an email from my cousin in Tokyo.
___________

Below is the letter I've been sending out to people. Since I wrote this letter, the focus has changed from the earthquake to the Fukushima nuclear reactors. Three of the 6 reactors are in danger of meltdown. I've been checking the wind patterns and so far wind is blowing away from Tokyo. 

I went out shopping with my son and the shelves are becoming bare in all supermarkets and convenience stores. Milk, bread, rice, eggs - all gone. 

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=dcjtokyo&target=ALBUM&id=5583478654748370481&authkey=Gv1sRgCJztt5yv4cq1ag&feat=email

We decided to call off school for Monday while we assess the situation. The German embassy has already sent it's people home (so I've heard from a couple of sources at school). It makes you wonder if the diplomats know something that we don't.

(Latest news - They've called off school for the rest of the month so we decided to visit California. Our son already had a ticket from a concert tour that was cancelled and we found a couple more tickets at a good price.

--------------

We're all OK.

Here's some pictures of the school.

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=dcjtokyo&target=ALBUM&id=5582733995967563841&authkey=Gv1sRgCKWovJCu577SIA&feat=email

It hit during last period and we reacted just like we do during our earthquake drills. Everybody was OK, although we had several crying girls. It doesn't really shake during our drills.

Tokyo is OK. Too far from the epicenter to sustain terrible damage. I've experienced a lot of earthquakes and this was by far the biggest one I've ever felt. It seemed to last for more than a minute. I was in class and we all dove under the tables and the longer it shook the more we scrunched up under the table. Then we got an announcement to evacuate to the tennis courts. After about 30 minutes a couple of teachers started leading their classes back in and then we had a big aftershock. The teachers made an immediate U-turn and after that we stayed on the tennis courts and waited for parents to come and pick up their kids. Some couldn't make it to school. Phones were out, expressways were closed and trains were shut down. So I stayed and kept updating the website giving school bus information so parents could see when the buses left the school.

At home a lot of my DVD's fell off the shelves.

2 school boys and 3 schools girls stayed overnight with us because they couldn't get home. The trains had all stopped.

_____________

WONDERING HOW YOU FOLKS WERE AFFECTED BY FRIDAY'S DISASTER.  HOPE YOU'RE SAFE AND DOING WELL. THINKING OF YOU.  HOPE TO HEAR, IF AND WHEN YOU HAVE TIME.

SUNDAY  MARCH 13, 2011

Civic Iconography

Interesting article on Civic Iconography

Chicago’s City Flag

Click to read more

Peoria Super-sized TIF

It will Play in Peoria

Peoria tests new ground with super-sized TIF

Proposed East Village Growth Cell would encompass more than twice the size of the city's biggest TIF district.

"It hasn't been an easy process in developing Peoria's latest, and most unique, tax-increment financing (TIF) district.

The evolution of the East Village Growth Cell, the first TIF in Peoria aimed at revitalizing a neighborhood area, has its share of critics including Peoria School District 150. It also has its supporters, including some residents who believe it's time to fix up one of the city's oldest and most core neighborhoods."

Click to read the story


The new TIF would help the restoration of the historic Armory Buildimg. The building would be a great space for Caterpillar, OSF, Methodist, or for storage.  


Redevelopment of the building could be helped with Enterprise Zone and TIF incentives, and historic tax credits. This great building could be brought back to life quickly.


Cleak to read more

Cargo Container Buildings

Cargo containers are a quick, low-cost, environmentally friendly building block for many types of buildings.




Click to Read the Article

Illinois American Planning Association

The 2010 American Planning Association - Illinois Annual Report is now available at:

http://www.ilapa.org/reports/2010annualreport.pdf

Nice job to all who worked on the 2010 program.


Web Site


http://www.ilapa.org/

Increasing Energy Efficiency

We are fortunate that technology keeps coming up with more efficient designs that generate more power with less harmful side effects. How far this can go is anyones guess, but it is great to see each improvement. It seems to me that we will eventually get to a very efficient set of systems that provide ample power and a good living standard for everyone without generating harmful effects. This will likely take may years, however.  Read more below.

Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Powered Brayton Cycle Turbine to Increase Efficiency By 50%

by Timon Singh, 03/04/11

filed under: Renewable Energy

While one can always look for new sources of renewable energy, there is a lot to be said for simply improving the efficiency of current systems. That is what researchers at the Sandia National Laboratories are working on by developing a gas turbine system that should increase thermal-to-electric conversion efficiency by as much as 50 percent. This could see a dramatic improvement for nuclear powered stations, which use steam turbines to generate energy.

Click to read more: