Wednesday, March 22, 2006

King Kong vs. 9/11
I just finished watching the new King Kong movie.

The thing that suprised me most was the response time of the fighter planes.

The only planes available in 1933, when this movie took place, were silly, barn-storming bi-planes with an average speed of about 100 mph.

Here is the response time of those planes (From the King Kong DVD):

2.23 King Kong Breaks Chains
2.33 King Kong Is Attacked By Planes
Total time: 10 minutes

On Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentegon, modern fighter planes (F-16s), not world war one-era bi-planes, were deployed. F-16s are capable of flying over 600 miles per hour.

Here are the response times of THOSE planes (From 256.com):

08:45 Flight 11 strikes the World Trade Center's north tower at about the 80th floor.
09:49 Military F-16s arrive over Washington, D.C. to perform Combat Air Patrol over city.
Total Time: 1 Hour, 4 Minutes

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Hope you are doing good

I just received an email regarding a job in Edison, NJ. This is how the letter started:

Hi

Hope you are doing good, I have seen your resume on job portal, . We do have an urgent opening

Putting aside the fact that I don't live anywhere near Edison, NJ (mistake #1)- how many additional mistakes can you count in the first sentence of this letter?

Here are the ones that I found:

1. There is no comma after "hi". And "hi" is really not a proper greeting for a message like this.
2. "doing good"?
3. "have seen"? I would prefer "I saw your resume"- but maybe that's just a personal preference.
4. "on job portal" should be "on the job portal" or maybe "on a job portal"
5. there is a random comma after "job portal"- followed immediately by a period
6. Oh- and there is no period at the end of the sentence

Friday, March 03, 2006

Location, Location, Location
I was in Las Vegas last week- and stopped to get some coffee at a Starbucks that was inside of a grocery store.

The first thing you see when you enter the store is this strange Zoom Shop vending machine:

The little white boxes inside this machine do not, as you might expect, contain cigarettes or candy or condoms. No- this machine sells only iPods and iPod accessories.

Only in Las Vegas do $300 electronic gadgets qualify as impulse buys at the grocery store.

It does seem like a good idea- but really not the best location. Maybe on an airplane- e.g. excuse me, sir... I couldn't help but notice the screaming kid in the seat behind you... could I interest you in this really expensive MP3-player?

Anyway- the "coffee girl", the grocery store manager informed me, was on her break and wouldn't be back for 30 minutes.

Maybe this would be a better location for a Starbucks Coffee Machine.