Wholly ridiculous. Still… WANT

 awesomeness, Hmm..., photography, weapons  28 Responses »
Sep 202014
 

I went to the gun show in Sandy today. Not to buy anything, just… to look at stuff. And one thing above all others was worth looking at: an Arsenal Firearms double-barreled .45:

WP_20140920_001 WP_20140920_002

A wholly impractical firearm, especially considering that the seller claimed to have turned down an offer to buy it for $6000. Still, it looks incredibly entertaining. Ah, well…

One question was answered, at least. While it appears to have two triggers, there’s really only one. The “two” are just forward projections of a single piece of metal. There is a single very wide hammer, so there’d be no choice but to fire two rounds with each trigger pull. How it *doesn’t* qualify as an automatic in that regard, I have no idea. It’s probably just so odd that the ATF hasn’t figured out how to ban it yet.

 Posted by at 11:30 pm

Protecting the EU from blondes and RC cars

 blather, Crazy, Forward!, Gah., Hmm..., I'm from the government, news, politics, ಠ_ಠ  6 Responses »
Sep 202014
 

While the US government is insanely bloated and often just plain insane, it’s worth noting that it’s nothing compare to the Europeans:

Photographic ID card now needed to buy hair bleach under European anti-terror laws

Peroxide blondes must now apply for photographic ID to buy the strongest hair bleach, under little-noticed new European anti-terror rules.

Model car buffs are also hit, as chemicals they use for fuel are controlled under the new scheme, run by the Home Office.

Anyone wishing to buy such materials must pay £40 for a three-year licence, or face two years’ jail. Shopkeepers can also be imprisoned if they do not check papers.

Papers, please…

 Posted by at 10:05 pm

Patreon: September 2014 rewards

 aircraft, drawings, history, new products, news, Patreon, projects, rockets, science, spacecraft  No Responses »
Sep 202014
 

After a bit of a delay, the September rewards have been released. These include a large-format inboard profile of the North American Aviation F-108 Rapier Mach 3+ interceptor:

2014-09 ad2

And “Notes on Space Technology,” a compilation of notes by the Flight Research Division of the NACA Langley Research Center based on a space technology course given in the early part of 1958. A hefty 670+pages in length, this covered just about every aspect of space travel as understood in 1958. While I haven’t read the whole thing, it appears to be not only of historical interest, but also useful to get a pretty good general grasp of space travel science, principles and technologies.

2014-09 ad1

Also included for the higher level patrons are three CAD diagrams:

Boeing Bird of Prey stealth, manufacturing and materials testing prototype aircraft from the 1990’s

Zenith Star experimental space based laser anti-missile system, 1988

Hypersonic Test Vehicle 2, a maneuverable hypersonic glider for missile-launched warheads

2014-09 ad3

The September rewards are about a week and a half late in being released. Since I hope to get the October rewards out a little earlier than normal, that means that the September releases will probably be available for a short time.

If you would like to access these items and support the cause of acquiring and sharing these pieces of aerospace history, please visit my Patreon page and consider contributing.

patreon-200

 Posted by at 9:41 pm

That time M-31 and the Milky Way collided

 art, awesomeness, Hmm..., science, science fiction  4 Responses »
Sep 192014
 

Around 5 billion years from now. at about the time the sun is bloating into a  red giant and eating the inner solar system, the Andromeda galaxy will come stomping up to the Milky Way and tear it to shreds. Andromeda will get badly mangled as well; the two galaxies will throw a fair deal of their mass out into interstellar space, but the bulk will merge into a new more massive galaxy. Individual starts are vanishingly unlikely to collide, though gravitational interactions with close passes will probably disrupt many planetary systems. Entire solar systems will be flung into the depths of interstellar space.  Imagine how a civilization might evolve on a planet circling such a star…  tens of millions of years after the event, the only lights in the night sky would be other planets, moons, asteroids… and one faint smudge that is the combined galaxy. *If* powerful telescopes are developed (and they might well not be, especially if there are no other planets), then the other galaxies throughout the universe might be detected, but it’s incredibly unlikely that they’ll be understood. With only a single star visible, how would these hypothetical astronomers ever even *hope* to grasp what galaxies are?

A computer simulation of the merger.

[vimeo 106350053]

 

 Posted by at 11:12 pm

Oh boy! Mayhem!

 blather, Crazy, dumbassery, history, Hmm..., news, politics, religion, ಠ_ಠ  5 Responses »
Sep 182014
 

Fun times in the world of politics:

Scottish independence: Voting under way in referendum

I gather it’s a toss-up at this point, probably won’t know for another day or so. Maybe CNN will get lucky and the voting will be 200o-Presidential-Level of close, with hanging chads and legal fights.

Elsewhere:

Australian PM: Public execution terror plot foiled

A sizable police raid is claimed to have stopped a planned terrorist act… the kidnapping off of the streets of Sydney of just some random schmoe, the on-video beheading of said schmoe, and the displaying of the body draped in an ISIS flag.

And…

Feds: NY store owner plotted to send jihadists to Syria, kill U.S. troops himself

Dude wanted to pay for idiots who wanted to wander over yonder and play jihadi, and pick up some guns himself and shoot veterans. Charming.

 Posted by at 8:20 am

Almost the F-15

 aircraft, art, history, projects  1 Response »
Sep 172014
 

McDonnell Douglas artwork from ~1970 showing the F-15 late in the design process. While it’s recognizably the F-15, a number of differences are visible, primary being the ventral fins and slimmer nose.

1970 F-15

 Posted by at 10:49 pm
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