Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
Mike Ellis
TDR MEMBER
Spent the weekend in Houston, and took time out to visit for the first time a Cummins product that is in excess of 500 feet tall. Nope, not the Powerstroke-killing 6BT... this Cummins product was in fact the San Jacinto Monument, engineered by one Robert Cummins. Sadly not Clessie Cummins, but given the impressive nature of the design I am willing to grant him "close relative" status sight unseen 
Surely an impressive sight to see, I've lived in Texas all my life and never visited it or the Battleship Texas before. Took the kids last week and enjoyed the heck out of it. If the 12V engine is considered "properly valved", then the Battleship Texas is probably just about "properly gunned". Wow!
Also visited NASA briefly, at the Visitor's Center their security guards were checking people out very closely and told me I couldn't enter with my pocketknife (a Case Trapper model that has been available for about 100 years, I have carried it daily for many years). They also refused entrance to a woman ahead of us in line, who had a plastic baggy full of pretzels and Cheerios for her baby. Guess they were afraid President Bush might visit and she might take him down with a pretzel from a distance.
At first I didn't think too much about the pocketknife incident, after all we were entering a NASA facility and I figured they might have some security concerns over hijackers etc. However, given the cheezy nature of the Visitor Center displays and the fact that there were no aircraft, missiles, etc anywhere remotely near the facility, it seems the pocketknife reaction was just more knee-jerk "me too" response to 9/11. Inside, as the kids played in one of those huge Habitrail-Hamster tube things and we looked at broken robot bugs and such, I heard more than one person expressing pleasure that the security at the facility was so tight. Had to wonder, what the heck did these people think a terrorist could do with a pocketknife in that place? Hijack the plastic mockup of the Space Shuttle's flight deck and whittle out a pair of solid-rocket boosters as a prelude to crashing it into the Enron center? Arggh. In my view, "For your own safety... . " can quickly be carried so far that a new form of fascism will result.
I'm just glad I didn't have pretzels or other dangerous salty snacks on me. Knives are bad enough, but getting caught carrying "the hard stuff".....
Surely an impressive sight to see, I've lived in Texas all my life and never visited it or the Battleship Texas before. Took the kids last week and enjoyed the heck out of it. If the 12V engine is considered "properly valved", then the Battleship Texas is probably just about "properly gunned". Wow!
Also visited NASA briefly, at the Visitor's Center their security guards were checking people out very closely and told me I couldn't enter with my pocketknife (a Case Trapper model that has been available for about 100 years, I have carried it daily for many years). They also refused entrance to a woman ahead of us in line, who had a plastic baggy full of pretzels and Cheerios for her baby. Guess they were afraid President Bush might visit and she might take him down with a pretzel from a distance.
At first I didn't think too much about the pocketknife incident, after all we were entering a NASA facility and I figured they might have some security concerns over hijackers etc. However, given the cheezy nature of the Visitor Center displays and the fact that there were no aircraft, missiles, etc anywhere remotely near the facility, it seems the pocketknife reaction was just more knee-jerk "me too" response to 9/11. Inside, as the kids played in one of those huge Habitrail-Hamster tube things and we looked at broken robot bugs and such, I heard more than one person expressing pleasure that the security at the facility was so tight. Had to wonder, what the heck did these people think a terrorist could do with a pocketknife in that place? Hijack the plastic mockup of the Space Shuttle's flight deck and whittle out a pair of solid-rocket boosters as a prelude to crashing it into the Enron center? Arggh. In my view, "For your own safety... . " can quickly be carried so far that a new form of fascism will result.
I'm just glad I didn't have pretzels or other dangerous salty snacks on me. Knives are bad enough, but getting caught carrying "the hard stuff".....
