Peter Wills dot com

Funniest photo ever

And as another trip to the US draws to a close it’s time to reflect on a couple of differences between the US and those of us in Australia

* Way more people using Apple computers. Very few people in Australia have these, but one in every four people I ran into in the US seemed to have one.
* Way more use of non-Blackberry mobile email devices. I don’t see a whole lot of people using Treos, etc. here in Australia. It’s Blackberry all the way down here, but quite the inverse there.
* Radically different degrees of reverence towards Harvard (see above).

Entry requirements

Damn, and I thought it was hard work getting a Qantas Club membership. At least I didn’t have to go to war for it.

Looking across at Dealey Plaza from the south end of the triple underpass

This is Dealey Plaza in Dallas, TX. Site of JFK’s final moments of life. The Texas School Book Depository is the building in the top-right, and the Grassy Knoll is the green patch sloping upwards towards a fence and some trees in the background. Walking around this place at 7am was downright surreal this morning. Flash-backs from Oliver Stone’s movie kept running through my head.

Minneapolis skyline

I knocked over my IEEE meeting yesterday morning and then slept for most of the afternoon. Oh well, at least I was in good shape to walk around the city. Glad I did. It’s a nice place.

Don’t overshoot the taxi!

One of the interesting operating procedures at LAX is the mandatory towing of aircraft into the gate from the apron. Here’s the reason why: less than 2m of clearance between the nose of the 747 and the terminal itself. No way the pilot could judge that reliably.

Yes, well, here I am in the US again. Took me just under 30 hours to get to Minneapolis, MN from Melbourne door-to-door.