Author Archives: Shawn E. Bell

Today is National Get Outdoors Day!

Why are you inside reading this?

National Get Outdoors Day is an annual event to encourage healthy, active outdoor fun.

No Adventure Pass is required today across the San Bernardino National Forest!

And if you are looking for fun things to do with your family, come join us for lots of fun activities outside:

  • 9:30am-10:30am- Build a Birdhouse (Fee: $6)
  • 10:30am-11:30am- Nature Craft- FREE!
  • 10:00am-12:00pm- Gold Panning (Fee: $3)
  • 11:00am- Map & Compass- FREE!
  • 12:00pm- High Flying Rockets- FREE!
  • 1:00pm-3:00pm- Kayak Eco-Tour ($30 per person)
  • 4:00pm-6:00pm- Kayak Eco-Tour ($30 per person)
  • 8:00pm- Campfire: Bluejay Blues By Firelight, Campfire Songs (Suggest Donation $5)

More information at www.mountainsfoundation.org or call 909-382-2790

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Help save the first Air Force One

In 1953 a presidential call sign was established by the Eisenhower Administration. The call sign stemmed from for two aircraft – Eastern Airlines flight 8610 and Air Force 8610 – entering the same airspace and which could have resulted in a midair incident.  The Air Force aircraft was, at the time, carrying President Dwight D. Eisenhower.  The first flight of a presidential aircraft with the call sign Air Force One was in 1959.

President Eisenhower used four propeller driven aircraft during his tenure, including two Lockheed C-121 Constellations – possibly one of the most beautiful aircraft to fly.  The Constellation came about because in 1939 Howard Hughes needed a 40-passenger transcontinental airliner with 3,500 mile range so that his airline company Trans World Airlines could compete with Pan Am. He approached Lockheed, and the Constellation was born.

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Burying the Hachette

Keith Cronin posted a great article about the ongoing Amazon/Hachette nonsense over at Writer Unboxed.  Personally, I firmly feel that Hachette is doing all of their authors a HUGE disservice by continuing this idiotic business war, and I feel that it’s making them look bad.  My favorite observation from this article:

“This is something that many people forget, or simply haven’t realized: Amazon is not a bookstore. It’s not Barnes & Noble on steroids. It’s much more like Costco, or Target, or Walmart: a powerful retailer meeting a wide span of consumer needs at discounted prices.”

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Apple announces OS X Yosemite

Okay, if you’ve visited my website a time or two – or even scrolled through a bit today, it’s no secret that I’m a BIG fan of Yosemite.  It must be a Scottish thing; John Muir seemed to have a fixation on the area that would eventually become a national park, too.

Today’s big announcement at the WWDC touched a soft spot; it’s Apple, it’s naming the new operating system Yosemite.  I’m giddy as a schoolgirl!  From MacWorld:

Apple on Monday announced that the next version of the Mac OS—dubbed OS X Yosemite, after the popular National Park in California—will be available as a free upgrade to the public this fall.

The jam-packed operating system update features a significant user interface overhaul, rich with bright colors and translucent effects, plus numerous changes to the visual identity of almost every system app that brings them closer to their iOS counterparts. The interface now also comes with a “dark” mode, which dims system elements like the Menu and Dock and allows apps to be more prominent.

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