michele travierso

Nagging—the interaction in which one person repeatedly makes a request, the other person repeatedly ignores it and both become increasingly annoyed—is an issue every couple will grapple with at some point. While the word itself can provoke chuckles and eye-rolling, the dynamic can potentially be as dangerous to a marriage as adultery or bad finances. Experts say it is exactly the type of toxic communication that can eventually sink a relationship.

To print ("ctrl+" first!) and to stick all over the walls of your love nest. Repeat until wall space ends.

It is hard to know who we, who coach from the sidelines, might really turn out to be if we should ever run up on the shoals: one of the passengers who snatched other people’s life vests, stepped on little kids, and escaped early, or one of those who turned back to save one more person more helpless than themselves and never escaped at all, like the missing musician, age 25, who let a woman with a baby take his place on a lifeboat. It is so easy to judge a a situation that most of us cannot imagine.

And of course there are larger questions crowding the surface of these troubled waters. Old salts are shocked by the idea of a captain who abandoned his ship.

With an interesting tidbit on the Captain of the Andrea Doria, sunk in 1956, which had to be talked out of becoming a permanent fixture of the ocean floor off the coast of Nantucket. Different age perhaps.

Thanks to JS for the link.

the boeing 787 'dreamliner' has just made its first intercontinental commercial voyage, between frankfurt and tokyo

with a flight this morning from frankfurt, germany, to tokyo, japan, the boeing 787 'dreamliner' for japanese carrier ANA
('all nippon airways') has completed its first intercontinental voyage, following initial flights in the late fall and winter of 2011.
in addition to vastly increased energy efficiency, a quieter engine, and a redesigned cockpit, the aircraft features a more
spacious, better pressurized cabin with LED mood lighting.

I don't usually get my aviation news from Design Boom, but this post has such a beautiful shot that was hard not to share it.

All right, I know that the reviews have been so-so at best. But for the reasons Lane Wallace has laid out very well on our site, the debut of the movie is in itself an event worth noting and supporting. I have met a number of Tuskegee Airmen over the years at air shows, and their story really is inspiring and deserving of notice by a new generation. Also, George Lucas has said that if this movie succeeds, he might complete a trilogy on this theme, so I figure I will vote with my movie-going dollars.

The flying world is still mainly white, in addition to overwhelmingly male, which is part of why the Airmen's achievement was so significant.

Not much to add, except that I hope Mr Lucas did overdo it with special effects. You would think that dogfights in WWII fighters are dramatic enough as they are and moviemakers should just aim for realism rather than spectacular effects, but then I would sound as an old fart.

Tecnam officials said they believe that many existing taildragger operators and pilots are “keen to change their existing models for a new and modern aircraft.” Tecnam P92 Tail Dragger customers will be able to power their aircraft with one of three engines: A Rotax 912ULS2, a Rotax 914 Turbo (not USA), or the Lycoming O-233 engine.

Market research shows that more than 50% of pilots prefer a tailwheel compared with standard configuration airplanes within the worldwide GA pilot community, company officials said. Other findings included a 60% preference for side by side seats (very few legacy taildraggers offer this cabin configuration, Tecnam officials note) and 70% of pilots indicated that they preferred a metal vs. fabric constructed aircraft.

Allegedly, it comes with standard tow hook.

Nobel laureate John Steinbeck (1902-1968) might be best-known as the author of East of Eden, The Grapes of Wrath, and Of Mice and Men, but he was also a prolific letter-writer. Steinbeck: A Life in Letters constructs an alternative biography of the iconic author through some 850 of his most thoughtful, witty, honest, opinionated, vulnerable, and revealing letters to family, friends, his editor, and a circle of equally well-known and influential public figures.

Among his correspondence is this beautiful response to his eldest son Thom's 1958 letter, in which the teenage boy confesses to have fallen desperately in love with a girl named Susan while at boarding school. Steinbeck's words of wisdom—tender, optimistic, timeless, infinitely sagacious—should be etched onto the heart and mind of every living, breathing human being.

New York
November 10, 1958

Dear Thom:

We had your letter this morning. I will answer it from my point of view and of course Elaine will from hers.

First -- if you are in love -- that's a good thing -- that's about the best thing that can happen to anyone. Don't let anyone make it small or light to you.

Second -- There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the ugly and crippling kind. The other is an outpouring of everything good in you -- of kindness and consideration and respect -- not only the social respect of manners but the greater respect which is recognition of another person as unique and valuable. The first kind can make you sick and small and weak but the second can release in you strength, and courage and goodness and even wisdom you didn't know you had.

You say this is not puppy love. If you feel so deeply -- of course it isn't puppy love.

But I don't think you were asking me what you feel. You know better than anyone. What you wanted me to help you with is what to do about it -- and that I can tell you.

Glory in it for one thing and be very glad and grateful for it.

The object of love is the best and most beautiful. Try to live up to it.

If you love someone -- there is no possible harm in saying so -- only you must remember that some people are very shy and sometimes the saying must take that shyness into consideration.

Girls have a way of knowing or feeling what you feel, but they usually like to hear it also.

It sometimes happens that what you feel is not returned for one reason or another -- but that does not make your feeling less valuable and good.

Lastly, I know your feeling because I have it and I'm glad you have it.

We will be glad to meet Susan. She will be very welcome. But Elaine will make all such arrangements because that is her province and she will be very glad to. She knows about love too and maybe she can give you more help than I can.

And don't worry about losing. If it is right, it happens -- The main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away.

Love,

Fa

Very little left to add, and that little is best told in front of several glasses of wine. There are indeed several kinds of love, but we've all met those unfortunate people that are stuck in a single, perverse path of of the "ugly and crippling kind". And, heck, the damage they do when they bump into you.

Jordi AC/Flickr

Shanghai is the fastest-growing city in the world, according to MetroMonitor, a quarterly analysis from the Brookings Institution that compares the 200 most prosperous metros by income and job growth. The victims of the euro zone crisis dominate the end of the list. Athens, Lisbon, and Dublin, the capitals of the three most endangered nations in Europe's sovereign debt crisis, made up the bottom three.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, many cities in China (and Asia) make that list. We shouldn't forget one simple fact though: 'fast-growing', especially when referred to cities, has usually little to do with the pleasantness of the life of its inhabitants.
The report offers other interesting insights, it's well worth a few minutes of your time.