John Wiseman

@lemonodor

Persistent sousveiller. Walt Disney R&D Imagineer. Runs GPSJAM.org. Signal: wiseman.04

1,045 Following4,576 Followers2,359 Posts

Reddit Bluesky

Is this your profile?Claim it and lemonodor.dirty.social is yours.Claim profile

John Wiseman@lemonodor· 27d

GPT-5.6-Sol left, Fable 5 right.

John Wiseman@lemonodor· 27d

I asked Fable 5 and GPT-5.6-Sol to make maps, any kind of map they wanted. The first image is Fable's, the second is GPT's.

John Wiseman@lemonodor· Jul 7

I've used about $3,500 worth of Fable 5 tokens with the 5x Max plan.

Chart showing the API costs of Fable 5 tokens that I've used.

John Wiseman@lemonodor· Jul 7

Less than two hours before Fable 5 goes away (hopefully temporarily). I've got 20% of a week's quota to use up before then.

Current session 8% used
Resets 2:20am (America/Los_Angeles)

Current week (all models) 47% used
Resets Jul 11 at 4am (America/Los_Angeles)

Current week (Fable) 80% used
Resets Jul 11 at 4am (America/Los_Angeles)

John Wiseman@lemonodor· Jul 6

This is what a 172,000 foot-tall Mojave airspace NOTAMed for amateur rocketry looks like from 85 miles away in Los Angeles. July 4-6 at the Reaction Research Society's (great name) Mojave Test Area.

John Wiseman@lemonodor· Jun 30

After adopting these two rescues from Maricopa, CA, we’re a cat family again.

John Wiseman@lemonodor· Jun 30

A wide shot of a group of spectators gathered on a large, jagged rock formation under a clear blue sky. Several people are sitting or standing on the rocks; one person is looking through binoculars while another holds up a camera, all looking out to watch the space shuttle orbiter landing test. A Periscope Film watermark and timecode (00:01:19:18) are visible at the bottom.

John Wiseman@lemonodor· Jun 28

https://x.com/jamesmishra/status/2071336100220825687

John Wiseman@lemonodor· Jun 27

Headpiece: Moon

https://mediagraph.io/parkendium/explore/collections/record-00003-costuming-documentation#/assets/f2849bae-3f8b-4e14-9b7c-17b0d4f20c28

John Wiseman@lemonodor· Jun 27

Eatin' clay has been a thing for a long time, but in the modern era anyone can get edible clays in various forms, chalk, and other minerals delivered via Amazon. www.amazon.com/Grandmas-Whi...

Photo of a plastic bag containing chunks of clay labeled GRANDMA's GEORGIA WHITE DIRT

John Wiseman@lemonodor· Jun 27

Today a Learjet declared an emergency for an engine fire at LAX just after taking off. atc.com/s/wxgVuZENWf9k

22:38:38 — CYO924 lifts off from runway 25L.

22:38:42 — CYO924 declares MAYDAY to LAX Tower for an engine fire, 4 seconds after liftoff, climbing off 25L.

~22:40 — ARFF6 fire truck starts rolling and pre-positions on Taxiway A.

22:40:19 — IBE03ZB goes around: stops descending at 2,350 ft about 6 miles out on the 25L approach, then climbs away.

~22:42 to 22:44 — ARFF2, ARFF4, and ops vehicle O91 stage along the south side on Taxiway A, 130 to 240 m south of 25L.

22:46:01 — CYO924 touches down on 25L (1.7 m off centerline) on its emergency return.

~22:46:40 — CYO924 turns off to the south, vacating the runway toward Taxiway A.

22:48:48 — CYO924 stops; O91, ARFF2 (106 m) and ARFF4 (141 m) converge on it, about 284 m south of 25L in the Taxiway A area.

22:49:43 — DAL908 lands on 25L (0.6 m off centerline), the first plane after CYO924.

22:51:55 — FDY805 lands on 25L (2.9 m), the second plane after.

22:53:10 — KYE9724 lands on 25L (2.8 m), the third plane after.

22:55:25 — IBE03ZB lands on 25L, the go-around aircraft re-sequenced about 15 minutes later.

John Wiseman@lemonodor· Jun 26

Pirates is open again at Disneyland, with some additions. www.instagram.com/p/DaCUdybgGwI/

John Wiseman@lemonodor· Jun 25

I have this. Drag & drop KMLs, tell it how strict you want it to be. Left is a LAPD helicopter, right is a CBP MQ-9 Reaper drone. It slides fixed-size windows of multiple lengths along the track, performing an algebraic (least-squares Kåsa-style) circle fit to each window's points.

Screenshot of my circle & target of interest (TOI) detector.

John Wiseman@lemonodor· Jun 23

gtla.live is an interesting map/dashboard focused on Los Angeles-area helicopters with embedded local news TV streams, notifications, and…it detects and highlights helicopters that are circling.

John Wiseman@lemonodor· Jun 23

My analysis of White Sands Missile Range GPS jamming activity suggests the possibility that after N249CP crashed they stood down GPS jamming for the rest of the exercise.

A dark-mode timeline chart tracking daily GPS jamming from May 10–18, 2026.

The chart plots 24-hour rows showing scheduled jamming windows (shaded blue) against actual jammed aircraft (white bars), with daily affected plane counts on the right.

Key sequence:
• May 10–11: No windows; minimal interference (~10 planes/day).
• May 12–13: Scheduled windows activate; heavy jamming hits 274 and 286 planes.
• May 14 ("crash day", in red): Jamming peaks at 336 planes. A pink line at 06:00 UTC marks "N249CP last ADS-B fix" inside the active jamming window.
• May 15–18: Shaded scheduled windows continue, but actual jamming bars vanish entirely. Daily affected counts immediately drop to single digits (7 to 16 per day).

John Wiseman@lemonodor· Jun 23

Based on the NTSB preliminary report on N249CP, the evidence is fairly strong: this medevac plane probably wouldn't have crashed, and its 4 crew would still be alive, if the military hadn't been jamming GPS that night.

Image taken from the NTSB preliminary report into the N249CP crash:

A Google Earth satellite map displaying the flight path of aircraft N249CP over a desert and mountainous region, annotated with timeline events. A legend in the bottom left indicates that green dots represent "Prelim ADS-B" data and red circles represent "Spidertrack" data.
The flight path proceeds chronologically as follows:
T/O 2352: The flight takes off from ROW Airport, heading west (marked in green).
0000:26: The plane is "1K' High (13k')" and "Reports GPS Lost." At this point, the tracking data switches from green to red.
0001:17: An annotation reads, "ARTCC Controller Requests Stop Jamming." The plane is on a "275 Hdg to SRR."
The plane makes a right turn northward, annotated "Cleared to REYOK 350 Hdg."
0005: As it travels north, an annotation reads, "ARTCC Supervisor Requests Stop Jamming."
0008:06: Near the top of its northward path, the plane is "Visual with SRR" and makes its "Final Radio Transmissions." The track briefly switches back to green dots.
0010: The plane makes a sharp left turn toward the west. Annotations read "ARTCC Informs Military Airplane is Visual" and "Airplane Starts Descent From 12k'." The tracking data switches back to red circles.
0015: The path continues westward into mountainous terrain and terminates at a red crash symbol labeled "N249CP," with the annotation "End of Flight Data."

John Wiseman@lemonodor· Jun 22

Yesterday morning the smoke from the Lineage fire was terrible in Eagle Rock. It smelled awful and I’d never seen the eponymous purple on PurpleAir before—we were way past the red.

PurpleAir screenshot showing 10-minute PM2.5 values of 272 in Eagle Rock Los Angeles

John Wiseman@lemonodor· Jun 18

I don't think it's a statistically significant change. And yeah, I understand those RAs are to some extent expected and generally don't need to be complied with.

John Wiseman@lemonodor· Jun 18

Here is an example of a go around that might have been due to the ban on simultaneous parallel approaches at SFO: An Asiana Airlines A350 landing on 28R overtook a SkyWest ERJ-170 lined up for 28L and the SkyWest flight ended up going around. globe.airplanes.live?icao=71c360,...

John Wiseman@lemonodor· Jun 17

The ban on simultaneous approaches doesn't seem to have affected the overall number of takeoffs and landings at SFO, though it might have decreased the cap on the peak hourly arrival rate the airport can handle.

A line and scatter plot chart titled "KSFO daily operations — official FAA ATADS count." A subtitle at the top reads: "Official tower operations (takeoffs + landings). Public ATADS data currently ends Apr 30 2026, so the post-ban window is ~1 month."
Axes: The y-axis measures "operations / day (tower)" from 0 to 1200+. The x-axis measures the "date (UTC)," spanning roughly from mid-December 2025 to May 2026.
Data and Trend: The chart plots individual daily operations as light blue dots, with a solid dark blue line representing the "7-day average." The trend line remains relatively stable across the entire timeline, supporting the conclusion that overall operations were unaffected.
Key Annotations:
A horizontal dotted line on the left side indicates a "before-ban avg 1091 ops/day".
A vertical dashed line intersects the graph at the end of March, labeled "FAA parallel-approach ban Mar 31 2026".
A horizontal dotted line on the right side indicates a slightly higher "after-ban avg 1141 ops/day".
Source: Text in the bottom left corner cites "Source: FAA ATADS / OPSNET (aspm.faa.gov/opsnet), Airport Operations, KSFO."

A line and scatter plot chart titled "KSFO peak hourly arrival rate." A subtitle at the top reads: "Average peak ~37/hr both periods (demand-limited), but the daily ceiling drops 48→40/hr after the ban — peaks can no longer surge via simultaneous approaches."
Axes: The y-axis measures "peak arrivals in any 60-min window" from 0 to 50. The x-axis measures the "date (UTC)," spanning roughly from mid-December 2025 to mid-June 2026.
Data and Trend: The chart plots individual daily peak arrivals as light orange dots, with a solid orange line representing the "7-day average." A vertical dashed line intersects the graph at the end of March, labeled "FAA parallel-approach ban Mar 31 2026."
Key Annotations:
Before the ban, a dashed horizontal line marks the highest peak at "busiest day: 48/hr", with text near the trend line indicating an "avg 38/hr".
After the ban, the 7-day average drops slightly to an "avg 36/hr", while the upper ceiling drops noticeably, marked by a dashed horizontal line at "busiest day: 40/hr".
Source: Text in the bottom left corner cites "Source: airplanes.live ADS-B data (arrivals inferred from track/ground transitions; ~10-15% undercount vs published counts)."

John Wiseman@lemonodor· Jun 17

I analyzed the impact of the FAA's ban on simultaneous parallel approaches at SFO, which went into effect on March 31, 2026. The number of TCAS Resolution Advisories (RAs) fell by about 90%. (cc/ @thisisaaronland.bsky.social)

A two-panel chart titled "KSFO: the end of simultaneous parallel approaches and the collapse in TCAS RAs," plotting data from roughly mid-December 2025 to mid-June 2026. A vertical dashed line intersects both charts, labeled "FAA ban Mar 31 2026."
Top Chart: Titled "Simultaneous parallel approaches per day at KSFO." It displays a blue line representing the 7-day average of approaches. Before the ban, the daily approaches fluctuated heavily with a "before-ban avg 45/day." Immediately following the March 31 ban, the line flatlines to an "after-ban avg 0.0/day."
Bottom Chart: Titled "TCAS Resolution Advisories (RAs) per day at KSFO (approach corridor + field)." It displays a red line representing the 7-day average of RAs. Before the ban, RAs occurred frequently with a "before-ban avg 2.6/day." After the ban, the line drops significantly to an "after-ban avg 0.3/day."
The bottom left corner cites the source as "airplanes.live ADS-B data."

John Wiseman@lemonodor· Jun 17

"Some tankers had multiple Automatic Identification System devices, which dark-fleet crews employ to broadcast fake identities to the world. In one instance, a cyber team found a toggle switch that sailors were using to electronically flip between vessel names."

Photo of a toggle switch labeled "AIS SELECTOR"

Photo of a jury-rigged serial port connector.

John Wiseman@lemonodor· Jun 16

At about 9 AM a Lancair Legacy, N84BZ, crashed into the parking lot at Whiteman Airport (KWHP). LiveATC's recording of the tower frequency has the controller saying “Gear’s up, gear’s up, Lance, gear’s up.” just before the landing. globe.airplanes.live/?icao=ab7db1&showTrace=2026-06-16

airplanes.live screenshot showing N84BZ on short final into KWHP.

John Wiseman@lemonodor· Jun 15

ADS-Bit is AllenNPIT's open source "retro SNES-style side-view flight tracker that displays ADS-B aircraft data with custom pixel art sprites." It requires that you have an ADS-B receiver. Nice creative app enabled by AI. github.com/AllenNPIT/AD...

A screenshot of the ADS-Bit interface showing a retro, 16-bit pixel art flight tracker. The main screen depicts a side-view of a desert landscape with a Las Vegas city skyline and mountains in the background. Three pixel-art passenger airplanes fly horizontally across a blue sky dotted with smiling clouds. A sidebar titled "AIRCRAFT IN VIEW" lists flights UAL2127, UAL2113, and ASA593. A bottom dashboard shows the connection status, a viewing direction of East, and local Las Vegas information including the date (Sun, Jun 14, 12:00 PM), clear weather at 103°F, and sunrise/sunset times.

John Wiseman@lemonodor· Jun 11

There are entire classes of very useful but painful to actually use apps that I assume will be quietly replaced soon by far superior apps built by LLMs in 10-30 minutes. Ham radio/scanner software is one rich vein.

John Wiseman@lemonodor· Jun 10

Today the AI briefer noticed 4 more NSL balloons over Coachella Valley.

John Wiseman@lemonodor· Jun 9

"A one-way Iranian Shahed attack drone downed the Apache helicopter gunship on Monday, a U.S. official said on Tuesday." www.nytimes.com/live/2026/06...

A one-way Iranian Shahed attack drone downed the Apache helicopter gunship on Monday, a U.S. official said on Tuesday, confirming an earlier report by Axios. President Trump had announced earlier on social media that Iran had shot down the helicopter as it patrolled near the Strait of Hormuz, but he did not provide details.

John Wiseman@lemonodor· Jun 9

The balloon’s transponder appears to still be on while they drive the balloon down the 210 freeway.

John Wiseman@lemonodor· Jun 9

They're landing this one in a soccer field at Hansen Dam. I thought these balloons could only maneuver by changing altitude to choose winds, but this looks like more than that.

John Wiseman@lemonodor· Jun 9

What's going on with this fellow? About half an hour ago it stopped climbing with the other 6 balloons and started descending, and now It's about 20000 feet lower than the others.