Mac Battery Mystery
This one totally beats me. After two years’ worth of abuse, my laptop battery was down to this:
A measly catastrophic 32% capacity resulting in an effective use tim of approximately half an hour. Then, something unforeseen must have happened, as capacity has jumped up again:
I didn’t tweak anything, honestly. So,. whilst this lasts, I’ll accept the circumstances and not purchase a new batterx like I intended to.
I’m using a 15″ MacBook Pro, and the battery app is Coconut Battery.
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Mainstreet USA: Apex, North Carolina
On the way back to RDU airport last week, I followed “old route 1″ which took me to Apex, North Carolina. This is probably as American as it gets.
Yom Kippur: Mystery pumps
Once in a while, I get sidetracked on Wikipedia, often ending up in the strangest places like the Six Day War today. From there it is only a short jump to the Yom Kippur War, which includes Operation Badr, or the crossing of the Suez Canal, at the opening of hostilities.
The Israelis had reinforced the East shore with high sand walls that would have to be breached by Egyptian engineers:
At the water’s edge of the canal, the Israelis constructed vertical sand ramparts that rose at an angle of 45 to 65 degrees and to a height of twenty to twenty-five meters to prevent the Egyptians from landing tanks and heavy equipment without prior engineering preparations on the east bank.
A better way than using conventional explosives had to be found to remove 1,500 cubic metres of sand (roughly 3,000 tons) in 70 different places in the shortest time possible. The solution was quite simple: using portable water pumps and a high pressure water jet, the task could be achieved in a few hours only:
the Egyptian military purchased 300 British-made pumps and found that 5 pumps could blast 1,500 cubic meters of sand in 3 hours. In 1972, the Corps of Engineers acquired 150 more-powerful German pumps. Now a combination of two German and three British pumps cut the time down to only two hours. The Israelis apparently failed to appreciate the significance of the water cannon and expected a much longer completion time for any such effort.
So that is one more unknown use for water pumps. I’d love to find out which pumps were used exactly.
texture: hasselbrook
Off to Bad Schwartau and Back
A quick two-day trip took me to Bad Schwartau. Lovely to be so close to Denmark, particularly with the smell reminding me of home. I am convinced it has got to be the strongest of our senses. Here are a few pictures and even a video from the landing back in Munich. Sad?
I am also convinced that Hamburg S-Bahn (local rail) has the worst interior design of all trains. Who ever came up with this?
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Welcome
Welcome to Irakli West's personal pages on the Web. I am Danish, live close to Munich in Germany, and run FWnetz, an online magazine and training resource for firefighters. I am also a digital strategy consultant.
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