Folks,

Dux:

It is not clear to me are you playing online? The other night over Duxford I saw a 109 explode from a direct hit by flack. I once saw that happen to my wingman. At least I think he was hit by friendly fire (no, not mine). I have never seen any plane damaged by barrage balloons or their cables, have you?

MG:

Thanks for the photo. That is one fine Fiat. You can be proud of that beauty and it should be quite a chick magnet as well. When I eventually get the SAAB 900 Turbo on the road I'll send you another snap.

We are expecting the coldest weather we've had since February of 2010. It won't be what C51 or PV1 call cold perhaps but it will be cold enough for southerners. We expect temps down around 20 F./ -6 C with a lower wind chill. After doing a bit of winterizing I went for a nice long walk this morning. Along the path I happened to spy and pick up a small branch fallen from a nearby sweetgum tree.

I have long been fascinated with fractals. A fractal has been defined as a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of the separate parts is approximately a reduced-size copy of the others. Way back when computers were still operated by steam I used to fiddle around making fractals using Basic programs I'd written. Gutter basic really for I was never a good Basic programmer.

What struck me today when I picked up that little branch was the evidence (well known to science) of fractals in nature. The branch was no less than a smaller copy of the whole tree from which it had fallen. You can see that phenomenon in many other natural things.