Author: ssegraves

What Happens if We Save Them and Fail

ssegraves

With all of the talk about bailing out the auto-industry I started wondering what would happen if we bailed out the Big 3 automakers and still they failed. It is a very real possibility. Pushing money to a problem and committing government “oversight” to something does not ensure an entity’s ability to thrive, just look at Fannie and Freddie.

If Washington rescues Detroit and the auto companies fail anyway, then we have essentially shot ourselves in the foot. Sure, Washington can continue to print money, devalue the currency and attempt to pay off debt with more debt but in the long run it just will not work.

I understand that a lot of people would lose their jobs if we do not do something about the automakers, but I also understand that we can do something and still have a lot of people lose their jobs. This fact is little talked about and seems that it is one of those things that “we can worry about later”. Yep, let the later generations pick up the pieces…

Continental Jet Runs Off Runway in Denver

ssegraves

Continental Airlines flight 1404 has reportedly run-off the runway at Denver International Airport. Smoke was reported to be coming from the wrecked plane. I hope everyone made it off the flight safely.

[EDIT] More information about the crash posted below

There is a lot of information coming out of Denver as to what caused the flight to exit the runway and catch fire. Some reports state that the wing broke-away from the plane and others that weather was a factor. This is all speculation and until the NTSB has had time to explore the crash site we will not know exactly what happened.

The good news is that all passengers and crew made it off of the flight safely and were taken to area hospitals. A few had severe injuries but were listed in stable condition.

Some information on the airplane itself:

  • Boeing 737-500
  • N-Registration #: N18611
  • Delivered in 1994

I found a few pictures of the 737-500 involved in the crash (here and here)

There is also a Twitter user who was a passenger on the aircraft when it ran off of the runway, 2drinksbehind

It appears that Continental ferried a 737-800 to Denver to pick up the passengers who are stuck in Denver due to the crash.

A New Beginning

ssegraves

As you can see, badice.com has received a facelift. The change has been long overdue and I am sure many people will welcome it. Some of the things I am looking forward to are:

  • Comments
  • A better looking page
  • A real blog script sitting behind the scenes, allowing me to focus on the writing

For everyone reading through a feed reader, you will want to reference the new feed, which is now live.

Over the next few days I will be editing certain parts of the site to add back content that is missing from the old design. Please feel free to send me an e-mail in the meantime and let me know what you think.

Making dinner an adventure

ssegraves

As much as Jess and I enjoy different hobbies, food is one of our passions. In every city or town we visit we try to find the restaurant or restaurants that have great tasting food. I guess you could call us non-professional “critics”.

Lately, our love of food has turned more to cooking rather than eating out. We have a great farmer’s market down the road from us and a bunch of little co-ops in the area. Two weeks ago we placed an order at a co-op to test the waters and see what produce came in the box. We received oranges, a nice sized mango, kale, lettuce, acorn squash, cilantro and some potatoes. Overall, not a bad box. The issue became what do we do with two of the ingredients that we have never tried, kale and pumpkin squash.

The search began for recipes for kale and there are a lot of different options, sauteing, soups, salads and everything in between. We settled on a kale and apple soup that at first we were a little hesitant to try due to the somewhat bitter flavor of kale. Having apple act as a sweetening element was also a little strange but Jessica decided to go for it and last night she whipped up a batch of the soup. Wow! What a great soup!

The picture does not do it justice, the color looks bad but the flavor and aroma of the soup was just fantastic.

Kale Soup

This dinner as an adventure thing is getting fun…

Continental Airlines to launch Frankfurt service from Houston

ssegraves

Continental, my airline of choice, announced launching Houston to Frankfurt service starting November 1, 2009. The route will be flown on a Boeing 767-200, with 25 BusinessFirst and 149 economy seats.

This announcement coincides with Continental’s entrance into the Star Alliance and will be a great compliment to the current Lufthansa flight that services Houston and Frankfurt. In the past, the only option to Frankfurt on Continental was to connect in Newark, now it will be a simple check-in and go.