The Unwanted Blog

• Grumman Design 619 Art: 2 May 22, 2013
  The Grumman 619 in orbit, deploying a satellite. Here you can see the humped cargo bay doors. Not visible here are turbojets in the cargo bay; they were left out of this particular mission. The orbiter would thus have to land as a pure glider. […]
• Woo! May 22, 2013
  Tonight I happened across a binder that I haven’t seen in many years, containing a number of reports that I had considered lost. Some of this is in dire need of being written about. But as a teaser and a test, here’s one line from a presentation chart from 1963. Who can say what this […]
• Put down the fricken’ camera May 21, 2013
  … and help the old lady:   NOTE: watch this and you may find that your room has gotten rather dusty. […]
• Grumman Design 619 Art May 21, 2013
  An illustration of Grumman’s 619 Space Shuttle – the final competitor for the competition that North American Rockwell won – lifting off. This design from 1972 was laid out pretty much as the final Space Transportation System was, but with some notable differences: 1) Stabilizing fins on the external tank 2) A “humped” back 3) […]
• Oklahoma May 20, 2013
  Oklahoma is currently getting trashed by very, very large tornadoes (two miles wide). It’s an ongoing disaster, so if you are in the area, find a hole, dive in and pull it in after you. Most of the time, reporters covering such stories are entirely too gleeful over the mayhem they get to cover. But […]
• Big G May 19, 2013
  One pre-Shuttle idea  for a space logistics vehicle was the “Big Gemini.” This would have used portions of the Gemini re-entry capsule as  the nucleus around which a much large conical capsule would be built. The adapter section would be done away with and replaced  with a conical section (with a geometry matching and extending […]
• Incoming Idiocracy May 19, 2013
  Researchers suggest Victorian-era people more intelligent than modern-day counterparts In short: duh. The metric used was a test of reaction time to visual stimuli. From 1884 to 2004, the reaction time for men rose from 183 milliseconds to 253 milliseconds; for women, 188 milliseconds to 261 milliseconds. To me this would seem to be a […]
• George Takei vs. protestors May 18, 2013
  Regardless of your views on gay marriage, ya gotta admit that George Takei has a good sense of humor, and knows how to take on people who disagree with him. George Takei Responds To “Traditional” Marriage Fans One set among several:   […]
• Marvin May 18, 2013
  Marvin is still cruising along. Oddly, her ears are going bald. Buh? If you were a Marvin donator, a  bunch of new photos were uploaded to Dropbox for you in the “individual Marvin photos” folder. […]
• Devils Slide May 18, 2013
  An interesting geological phenomenon east of Ogden, Utah. Photographed a week or so ago on my way home. What you’re seeing is the result of land that has been uplifted in such a way that previously horizontal terrain has been tipped about 90 degrees; horizontal layers are now vertical. The layers are of differing hardness; […]