Fingers looking through handrail supports on the stairs.
Oct 262011
Oct 262011
Work continues.
Oct 252011
U.S.’s most powerful nuclear bomb being dismantled
It’s an antique with little to no utility in the modern world, but it’s still sad to see the line end with a whimper. At the very least, the last B53 should have been detonated somewhere just to remind people what a nuke can do.
Oct 252011
You read that right.
Short form… 74-year-old woman has a tiny speck of moon rock that was given to her late husband by Neil Armstrong. Her son is sick, so to raise money she did the obvious thing and looked for a buyer for the moon rock. But it turns out that while it’s legal to possess an Apollo moon rock, it’s illegal to *sell* an Apollo moon rock, as NASA considers each and every speck brought back to be government property. So armed NASA agents swooped in on the elderly miscreant at a Denny’s.
Feh.
Forty years later, it’s a freakin’ tragedy that those few bits of rock brought back by the Apollo astronauts remain the *only* bits of moon rock brought back by astronauts. Rocks with no real intrinsic value are considered “national treasures,” when, really, they should be no more “treasure” than beach sand from Florida should have been Spanish “national treasure” in 1532.
More on this story HERE.
Oct 252011
Now available: two Rockwell International diagrams dated 1977 showing markings for the Space Shuttle Orbiter, including markings for the hatch on the left side, national insignia, rescue markings, ejection labels, etc.
Set includes V070-000008 sheet 1 of 2 ( 13296X3660 pixels, B&W) and sheet 2 of 2 (13234X3600 pixels, B&W). Also includes grayscale halfsize and quartersize versions of each for easier viewing and printing.
Space drawing 27 can be downloaded for $4.50.
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Oct 252011
An op-ed by a former New York Times restaurant critic discusses the concept of national reciprocity for concealed carry license holders. This being the New York Times, it is both predictably slanted and inaccurate.
The subject of the op-ed is the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011. If passed, any American who has a CCW permit will be allowed to carry his or her weapon in any state that issues such permit, regardless of differences in issuance requirements.
The op-ed writer uses sarcasm to cast aspersions upon the proposed bill and the NRA, which supports it. His primary complaint seems to be that the NRA and their political allies usually despise the federal government intruding into the area of states rights… such as “health care, tort reform, education.” Where the writer misses the point (whether because he’s a political hack and intentionally avoided it, or he’s just an unthinking moron I can’t answer) is that the right to bear arms is the right of *all* Americans by dint of the Constitution. Human rights are the sort of things that the federal government was set up specifically to protect, are are the sort of things that states *cannot* infringe upon. States cannot restrict the press, cannot establish religions, quarter troops in homes, or carry out cruel and unusual punishments… or infringe on the right to keep and bear arms. States *do* have the rights to do their own thing on things that the Constitution does not touch on.
Additionally… all states have to accept all other states drivers licences, regardless of issuance requirements.
One of the restaurant critics last lines:
…off to New York the South Dakotan tourist could go, 9-millimeter Glock in tow.
Huh.
According to the FBI, in 2010 there were 14 murders on South Dakota (0.8 million population = 17 murders per million) and 860 in New York (19.4 million population = 44.5 murders per million). So… what this wilting violet seems to be afraid of is that if this law passes, his state will suddenly be flooded with people less murderous than his own. Go ahead and figure that out.
Further: the firearm homicides in South Dakota for 2010 were 8, and 517 for New York. That means that 57% of homicides in gun-happy SD were by gun; 60% of homicides in gun restricting NY were by firearm. Worst of all, there is one state that just plain bans concealed carry for politically unconnected citizens… Illinois. In 2010, there were 453 homicides (out of 12.8 million… 35.4 murders per million), of which 80% – 364 – were by firearm. Letting outsiders pack heat into the state would only *benefit* Illinois.
Oct 252011
Two more Grumman paintings depicting the 698 VTOL design.
The Grumman 698 as a rescue aircraft, snagging a pilot in mid parachute descent. How the rescue plane just happened to be where it would be needed is unknown
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A Grumman 698 landing on an oil rig. This is the sort of role that only helicopters can currently fulfill.
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Three-view of the full scale model tested at NASA-Ames.
Oct 242011
Every now and then one of these comes in:
Scott, you have a really nice website with many things to capture the attention of aviation enthusiasts such as myself. I look at your items for sale with great interest, but I would never purchase anything from you though, because your political blogging is so low brow and offensive. It goes to show a person can have a lot of technical knowledge and still be a bigoted, hypocritical, moron.
Stay out there in the hinterlands…its where you belong.
Ah, the plaintive squeal of “bigot” coupled with a smattering of other insults. No indication was given as to what I’m supposed to be bigoted against. Previous experience would indicate that no coherent explanation would be forthcoming.
Oct 242011
Because the “everything is awesome” reports are starting to come out, such as this one:
World power swings back to America
Within five years or so, the US will be well on its way to self-sufficiency in fuel and energy. Manufacturing will have closed the labour gap with China in a clutch of key industries. The current account might even be in surplus.
Yeah, uh-huh.
This is predicated upon companies returning manufacturing operations to the US (just in time for the OWS movement to scream that they need to jack up corporate taxes) and hydraulic fracturing on a major scale in order to produce vast quantities of natural gas (just in time for EPA rules to squash the whole process).
BTW: Things have returned to status quo out here, so my fabulous blogging activities should also return to normal shortly.
Oct 232011
Libya’s transitional leader declares liberation
Nice title for the article, yes? But then there’s this:
…transitional government leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil … saying that Islamic Sharia law would be the “basic source” of legislation in the country and that existing laws that contradict the teachings of Islam would be nullified.
Keep that in mind whenever you see someone in the US either calling for an “American Autumn” like the Arab Spring, or comparing the OWS fleabaggers with the Arab uprisings.