Just as I though V2N5 would be done quickly, I though V2N6 would be done even more quickly. It started off at less than forty pages, as all of the original APRs did, and I didn’t think it would grow that much more. And then… I found the big stack of ROMBUS/ICARUS/Ithacus/ICARUS Jr./Pegasus stuff. That article alone is now at about 61 pages.
So, yeah, I’m still working on it…
As previously mentioned, my good camera tripod toppled over and broke. Since buying a replacement for soemthign missing only a hinge seemed a poor use of funds, I slapped together a fix using some cheapo parts:
Here is what the broken part of the tripod looked like prior to repairs:
The parts off to the right are the sheared off bits of the hinge.
Here’s the platform placed on the tripod, showing where the hinge should be.
Another view, showing how the parts should go together.
Here’s the new hinge. Note that one of the loops was cut off. This way, when the wingnut is tightened on the bolt running through the loops, it clamps to two sets of loops against each other.
Here is the hinge in place… plastic bonding epoxy is used to help strengten the screwed-in attachment to the lower part of the tripod, and a big fat blob of the stuff in the empy volume of the upper platform gives the screws something to bit into. Note that I drilled another screw-hole in the hingeattaching to the lower part of the tripod.
Here’s the hinge closed.
It looks kinda pathetic, but so far it seems to hold up well. It’s certainly less expensive than blowing another hundred bucks.
With a bit of fade correction to bring out the colors.
Prepare the insulin…
Sometime around 1994 I bought a vacuum-forming machine, the “Hobby Vac System 2.” It worked well, but as time went by my need for it faded, and it got stuffed out of sight. Recently I decided to haul it out of mothballs, as I’ve a few projects that would benefit from vacuum forming. It’s dusty as hell, but seems to be in good shape. But there’s one problem: the power cord. I can’t find the damn thing. Last time I can defintely recall seeing it was a dozen years and two moves ago.
So I packed it up and took it to the local electrician/appliance store, to see what they can tell me… which was “not much” and “good luck.” A search for “Hobby Vac System 2” turns up precisely zip. The plug seems to be a standard sort of appliance plug, perhaps from some sort of grill or cooker or something. It had, as memory serves, a single long central prong, plus the two side sockets as would fit the socket in the photos below. Does this look familiar to anyone? Anyone know where I might be able to procure a replacement?
Fifteenth in the series of reconstructed drawings from Paul Suhler’s book “From RAINBOW to GUSTO.” This is the A-5 design as drawn by Dan Zuck. This is Figure 67. This particular drawing has a Source Grade of four: 
“RAINBOW to GUSTO” is available from Amazon.com (for $39.95) and direct from the AIAA ($29.95 for AIAA members).
To download the high-rez version of the A-5 drawing, simply click THIS LINK. You will be prompted for a username and a password. For the A-5 drawing, use these:
Username: the FIRST word in the body of the text on page 132
Password: the FIRST word in the body of the text on page 133
(Remember: Case Sensitive!)
Up next: Figure 68, A-6-5 configuration
Wasn’t this sumbitch supposed to be dead by now?
Lockerbie bomber Megrahi living in luxury villa six months after being at ‘death’s door’
The man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing is living with his family in a luxury villa in Libya six months after he was released from jail on compassionate grounds because he had less than three months to live.
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, who is suffering from terminal prostate cancer, no longer receives hospital treatment after ending the course of chemotherapy that he had been given after returning to his homeland last August.
Professor Karol Sikora, the London-based doctor who examined Megrahi and predicted he would be dead by last October, admitted this weekend that the fact the bomber is still alive might be “difficult” for the families of the 270 victims of the attack.
Gah.
Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish Justice Secretary, ruled last August that Megrahi should be freed. Megrahi’s release came after Libyan leaders warned that lucrative oil and trade deals with Britain would be cancelled if the bomber died in jail.
Y’know, I can see the harsh political calculus that was at work here, and I can understand it. Let one scumbag go in order to save billions of pounds and all kinds of political headaches. I see the same logic at work when terrorists are exchanged for kidnapped civilians. But for the love of all that’s harsh and devious… couldn’t they take a lesson from the Russians and implant these bastards with some sort of slow-dissolving capsule that will break down in two months and give them leprosy or terminal ass-cancer or something? Hell, chemical castration, some horrible gender-bending hormone treatment… something. I’d personally kick in a few bucks for a secret program to develop a long-delay system that would suddenly dump a gram or two of mettalic sodium or phosphorus into the scumbags bloodstream, preferably in the gut or near the heart.
Come *on,* people. It can’t be that friggen’ hard.
Now available is a 40-page PDF file of a US Army training manual, TC 23-3, “To Catch A Tank: Big Game Hunting Made Easy.” Published in 1972, this “comic book style” manual illustrates tactics that infantry can use to take down enemy tanks, both in the wild (largely forests) and in cities.
<>This manual was scanned at high rez and digitally “cleaned” to make it the be all that it can be.
Since this was a small-format publication (still, it’s 26 megabytes), it comes with a small-format price. You can download MN1, “To Catch A Tank,” for only $2.50.
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I have about half a dozen of these small “comic book” manuals, but I’m on the lookout for more. If you have any you’d be willing to loan, rent or sell, let me know.
NASA plans more outreach to Muslim countries
WASHINGTON – NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said Tuesday that President Barack Obama has asked him to “find ways to reach out to dominantly Muslim countries” as the White House pushes the space agency to become a tool of international diplomacy.
“In addition to the nations that most of you usually hear about when you think about the International Space Station, we now have expanded our efforts to reach out to non-traditional partners,” said Bolden, speaking to a lecture hall of young engineering students.
Here, let me say that again:
Gah. What’s this jackholes legacy going to be? An absolutely enormous, gigantic government, and a space program that is no longer a tool for advancing America’s interests, but instead a feel-good bit of uselessness hidden somewhere in the budget.
But hey, at least we’re going to help the Muslim countries with their space programs, so that’s a good thing, right?
The launch of the Solar Dynamics Observatory atop an Atlas rocket on February 11 featured a rare phenomenon… the supersonic launch vehicle passed through a think layer of clouds, causing a very clear series of “ripples” to spread outwards and the shockwave from the vehicle passed. Give it a watch on Youtube.
