Aug 252015
 

But for how long? Hmmm…

Also: it looks like all the images I’ve posted since 2008 are here, but the links are screwed up. The image below of the cat? Seems to be fine.

Take, for example, the “factory floor” photo from This Recent Post. The image is no longer visible in the post, and if you click on the link you get a 404 Error. That’s because the link is *wrong.* The link you get is:

http://up-ship.com/blog/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/factory-floor.jpg

But the *correct* link is:

http://up-ship.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/factory-floor.jpg

 

heavybreathing

Yay! The Saturn V blueprint is back! Again, since the blog-mutilation, the file was still there, but the image being called for was “http://up-ship.com/blog/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/headersat1.jpg” rather than “http://up-ship.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/headersat1.jpg.” Note the spurious additional “/blog” term that was added to the callout. Damned if I know how or why. Note that poor Buttons has been removed from the Tip Jar. Frrrmph.

 Posted by at 2:05 pm
Aug 212015
 

A panorama taken from up the hills to the west looking toward Tremonton and the Walls of Mordor (i.e. the Wasatch Mountains). This was from June, before the clean, pure, highly environmentally regulated air of California arrived and mucked up the view. Now, the mountains are wholly invisible.

2015-06-07 PANO 1

 Posted by at 8:47 am
Aug 202015
 

In the late 1970’s Rockwell international studied the “Star-Raker,” a large airbreathing horizontal takeoff and landing SSTO designed to support the Solar Power Satellite program. This 2,268,000 kg gross weight vehicle would have a payload of 89,200 kg; the claim was that this vehicle could fly roughly daily and very cheaply. Of course, at about the same time Rockwell was claiming that the Space Shuttle would have a two-week turnaround and would be the cheapest ticket to space…

While Star-Raker was far from the biggest or most powerful launcher studied for SPS, it was certainly one of the more interesting concepts. While a number of SPS reports have described the Star-Raker, to my knowledge a dedicated Star-Raker design report has not come to light. If anybody knows of such a thing, by all means let me know.

Star-Raker garnered a bit of press back in the day, likely due in part to the fact that Rockwell released a number of pieces of concept art, like the one below showing the vehicle in orbit.

2015-08-200353

I have uploaded the full-rez version of this to the APR Patreon “Extras” folder for 2015-08 on Dropbox. It is available for all $4 and up APR Patrons.

 Posted by at 6:14 pm
Aug 202015
 

If the answer is “no…” Well, the question then becomes “where will the *Germans* go when *they* are  forced to flee?”

Germany refugee riot injures 15 after Koran defaced

We seem to be entering an exciting era of low-rent mass invasions. The US has been successfully invaded by many millions of illegal aliens; Europe is now being overwhelmed by refugees fleeing crappy cultures… and bringing those crappy cultures with them.

I still think that the best possible solution to the “refugee problem” is to collect refugees into training facilities, train them up in basic military tactics, wait until a sufficient critical mass of trained refugees are onhand… and them ship them back, armed with infantry weaponry. Germany is looking to have 650,000 refugees show up this year; three or four years of that should provide Germany with an army of at least a million more or less adequate soldiers. A million  such soldiers sent to Syria en mass would do much towards taking down both the Assad regime and Islamic State. The US has somewhere between 11 million and 40 million illegals; should be able to form an army of between 3 and 10 million out of that. Sent to Venezuela, they could create their own nation out of that failed state.

 Posted by at 10:00 am
Aug 192015
 

A circa 1959 photo showing the interior of the Lockheed-Georgia aircraft facility with a number of C-130’s under construction and a Boeing B-47 presumably being upgraded or equipped with Lockheed equipment.

factory floor

 Posted by at 6:49 pm
Aug 192015
 

The smoke from the fires in California is filthying up the northern Utah skies. The scent is faint, but detectable… but the *sight* is obvious in both day and night. Not only is the muck in the air visible across the distances, it’s blisteringly obvious if you shine a flashlight up into the night sky.

WP_20150819_005 WP_20150819_011  WP_20150819_026Dsc_23832015-08-18 pano 1

This gives me and my compromised lungs a bit of an uncomfortableness.

 Posted by at 6:32 pm
Aug 182015
 

Gawker recently posted an interview with a politically active feller. It starts off thusly:

Gawker: Your involvement in electoral campaigns is mainly organizing for progressive Democrats?

Interviewee: Yes, mainly progressive Democrats and independents at every level, whether it be city council, state rep, Senate, Presidential. I was really active in both Obama campaigns. Actually I was his precinct captain for his Senate campaign in Illinois.

OK. So who’s being interviewed?

A) Bernie Sanders’ campaign manager

B) A Baltimore Mayoral candidate

C) The national chairman of the Communist Party USA?

I’ll give you a moment to ponder that.

 Posted by at 12:12 pm
Aug 182015
 

Sure, why not:

BOMBSHELL: China and America already at war: Tianjin explosion carried out by Pentagon space weapon in retaliation for Yuan currency devaluation… Military helicopters now patrolling Beijing

Because a chemical plant built and operated in a nation run by communists couldn’t *possibly* catch fire without aid form American space weaponry.

Come for the “Rods from God,” stay for the “vaccines cause autism” and the transition to “Shemitah” (“Blood Moon” gibberish).

 Posted by at 6:52 am