Things On My Mind

#1: I watched something on the dish tonight about Airbus and how they have construction of the A380 farmed out all over the EU. Lots of different companies, nations, people and really cool manufacturing technologies involved. Problem comes when they have to get all the parts to one place to actually screw it together. I shooting from the hip here, but I'll bet 25% of what is costs to build that hog must be in all the barges, cargo planes and lorries that have to be specially constructed for the trip to land-locked Toulouse. Europe's low bridges, narrow streets, and short runways have very nearly created a boat-built-in-the-basement problem.

#2: Back in the innocent days of high school, one of my favorite teachers explained that water will act as a lubricant and will reduce the coefficient of friction between any two surfaces. If that's the case, why is it so tough to put on socks if your feet are wet?

#3: I'm no fan of ginormous warehouse-style grocery stores. You know, the kind that no self-respecting suburb can live without? Well, sometimes they will plop one of 'em right in the urban core, and since the prices are pretty low, they'll attract much of the immigrant community. The result is that in addition to the thousands of metric tons of American stuff like Oreos and hot dogs, you will, amazingly, find some interesting ethnic treasures. One of which is Coca-Cola from Mexico. It comes in thick glass bottles, just like the good old days, and there's gotta be something different about the recipe as compared to American Coke. Maybe they use real sugar instead of Splenda or NutraSweet (or whatever), because it is so good . . .