Attitude adjusting

Listening to/watching: Silver Ferns v Australia. Anyone remember the Havoc-Newsboy jingle? "Silver ferns! They catch and throw and catch and throw the ball again!"

T for the week is the Bad Attitude from the early '90s. It's a bit geeky this one. The image is of an attitude indicator (commonly known as an artificial horizon) instrument such as you would find on the instrument panel of an aircraft. It is used (in concert with other instruments) to indicate the direction an aircraft is oriented relative to its direction of flight (known as attitude), which is not always the same. Blue represents 'up' usually, with brown, orange or red to indicate 'down' below the horizon in the middle. The face is gimballed so the the artificial horizon parallels the actual one outside the aircraft.

Got that?

Anyway, the gag is, if your attitude indicator looks like the one in the image, your aircraft is banking to the left, upside down, and diving toward the ground.

Which is a 'Bad' attitude, as it will sooner or later involve sudden and probably violent contact with the earth. Being upside down, the undercarriage won't matter (although one guy in the states a while ago bolted a spare undercarriage to the top of his plane, enabling him to take off and land upside down).

Never worn to work.

Weather
"Did you actually want to talk about the weather or were you just making small talk?"
One of the many great lines from "Groundhog Day", even if approximated because I can't remember it exactly.
The march of the hail bearing cumulonimbus on Tuesday was an awesome spectacle in Upper Hutt. Fine and sunny at work, while Mount Climie a few kilometres away was swathed in strokes of falling hail, with deep purple grey skies above blending into blinding white anvil headed clouds.
I like weather. I'm crap at small talk.

House Hunting
After one weekend of serious house looking I have some observations:
-It is simultaneously exhilirating and depressing, when you see something you might like, something you do like but can't afford, something you don't like in a location you want, something you like in a location you don't want, something you like in a location you like.
-The last one is most exciting.
-I am sick already of hearing about how glad people are that they bought when they did, how good a price they got, and how glad they are that they are not buying now.
-I am also sick of smiling fast talking real estate agents.
-I hate how many ads are geared towards attracting 'investors' rather than people who just want somewhere to live.
-I like exploring new houses.
-I like the thrill that 'the one' might be the next house we look at.
-The 'property' supplement of the Dominion Post is USELESS and largely irrelevant for first time buyers.
-Compromise is essential.

The World
So North Korea has the bomb. Meh. Despite all the hysteria and posturing, in the big scheme of things it really doesn't change much. Nuclear weapons are more politically than militarily useful, and blowing up a mine shaft is a long way from having a weapon you can attach to a missile or aircraft. While military action against North Korea would be impractical and insane, military action by North Korea would be in a similar vein in terms of outcome.
Some of the reportage about current and past members of the nuclear 'club' and how long they have been so has been hilariously inaccurate.