admin

APR returns to Facebook

 AARRRGH, APR, blather  2 Responses »
Sep 252017
 

Argh. Facebook is not my favorite thing. But, apparently, it’s where all the cool kids hang out, so the Aerospace Projects Review Facebook page that I cobbled together years ago, I’ve started posting things in again.

One of the weird things about Facebook is that you (apparently) can’t see a page unless you are signed in to Facebook, and if you are signed in, your own Facebook page when displayed to you has a bunch of editing features plastered all over it. Mine does, at any rate. So I can’t see what my own APR Facebook page looks like to other folks. Meh. So I don’t know if it looks ok or not. Anyone wants to wander by and let me know, that’d be great.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Aerospace-Projects-Review/159434240833823

 Posted by at 2:16 am

STD: Meh

 Meh., news, science fiction, ಠ_ಠ  9 Responses »
Sep 242017
 

So, Star Trek Discovery plopped onto the airwaves tonight. My review:

It was certainly pretty, but all those visuals were spoiled by a whole lot of “WTF am I looking at?” Especially with the “Klingons” who bore almost no relationship to any prior iteration of the Klingons, in biology, aesthetics or culture. Heck, they even have Klingons  hating on other Klingons based on skin color, something that has *never* been indicated before. And of course they have cloaking devices, ten years before the Romulans invented the friggen’ things.

And Star Fleet bridge officers who attack other officers and try to mutiny. Yeah, sure, happens all the damn time in Starfleet. The rest of the story just didn’t really inspire much interest.

The first episode ends with a bit of a cliffhanger. Of course if you want to watch the second episode and those beyond, you’re supposed to pay up for the CBS All Access streaming service. But the episode left me cold, no more interested in shelling out to stream the episodes than before I saw it. So…

At least there’s still “The Orville,” a show that actually seems to get Star Trek.

 Posted by at 9:41 pm

Going up a mountain

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, youtube  4 Responses »
Sep 242017
 

… in a drone:

This is pretty much exactly the sort of footage that would have been impossible to get prior to the current generation of drones. So just imagine what people will be able to film once the batteries for drones are actually *good,* with the power and energy density of chemical fuels like gasoline.

I kept halfway expecting the drone to duck into a crevice in the rock face and wind up in a great interior space, lit only by the flames of a Balrog…

 Posted by at 6:59 pm

I’d watch this movie

 art, awesomeness, Crazy, Hmm..., humor, youtube  6 Responses »
Sep 242017
 

OK, let’s say your town is plagued by a transdimensional monster that takes the form of a killer psychotic clown. Who would be the best person to try to destroy this menace? That’s right, the goddamn Batman:

 

And because why not:

 

 

 

 

 Posted by at 6:39 pm

New York City: avoid at all costs

 AARRRGH, Crazy, Gah., news, politics, ಠ_ಠ  14 Responses »
Sep 232017
 

A deli worker was attacked, someone came across the counter and slashed at him with a knife. He fought back with a  knife of his own, and the other guy got the worse of it. So, what happened? Did the city of New York throw the deli worker a ticker tape parade? Give him the keys to the city? A commendation for improving the streets and the gene pool? Nope:

Harlem deli worker charged with murder after fatally stabbing man who tried to attack him behind counter

Left unexplained in the article is why a guy who, according to the description given in the article, was simply defending himself has now been charged with murder.

 Posted by at 6:04 pm

North American Aviation “space taxi”

 art, history, Hmm..., projects, rockets, science fiction, spacecraft  6 Responses »
Sep 232017
 

A piece of NAA concept art from the late 50’s or very early 60’s depicting a “space taxi.” Such devices were a common staple of space station thinking well into the 60’s, though it’s difficult to tell just how serious of a design this one was. The canopy, for example, seems an odd choice. The shape of the bubble and of the hatch indicates that this was not designed to hold pressure; the fact that the pilot is shown in a full space suit backs that up. It would make it difficult for the pilot to enter and exit the craft. And of course, the taxi is shown without reaction control thrusters, making it rather difficult to maneuver the thing. Very likely this is an artists fantasy done purely for marketing, showing people things they expect to see. Note, for example, that the space station appears to be cribbed directly from the Collier’s series. And if the station was rotating, that door would be in the *floor.*

 Posted by at 1:54 pm

That there is not an AK-47

 AARRRGH, art, dumbassery, Gah., history, weapons, ಠ_ಠ  3 Responses »
Sep 222017
 

Kalashnikov statue changed because of German weapon

Woopsie. A statue commemorating Mikhail Kalashnikov, designer of the AK-47, was unveiled in Moscow this week. Looks like a good statue.  At the base of the stature there’s a sculpted “exploded view” diagram of the AK-47. Well… of the German StG 44, in fact, not the AK-47. They look similar to be sure, but they are not the same. And once that mistake was discovered, they delicately chopped the diagram off with an angle grinder. The link above shows the before and after photos.

This sort of screwup is not as uncommon as you might hope. Sometime circa 1994 I attended the unveiling of a veterans memorial on (or near, I forget exactly) Rock Island Arsenal. It consisted of polished black marble slabs, one for each war on up to the Persian Gulf War. Each slab had “art” laser or chemically etched into the surface; pictures rather than actual sculpture. I had a difficult time not making a scene when I realized that the Persian Gulf War slab showed what was *supposed* to be an AH-64 Apache, but was actually an Agusta A129 Mangusta, an Italian attack helicopter that the US military most assuredly did *not* use in Iraq.

This is also not an AK-47. Or is it? Hmmm…

 

So where are the statues of Eugene Stoner, Edward Teller and John Moses Browning? I suggest for every statue of Jefferson Davis or Robert E. Lee taken down, they be replaced with prominent American weapons designers.

 Posted by at 11:44 pm

$200 million for anti-science

 AARRRGH, Crazy, dumbassery, Gah., Meh., news, religion, science, ಠ_ಠ  2 Responses »
Sep 212017
 

UC Irvine aims to transform public health with record-breaking $200-million donation

The donation comes with a bit of a hitch: it’s to be used to promote homeopathy.

On Monday, UC Irvine Chancellor Howard Gillman announced that the Samuelis have donated $200 million to launch what he billed as the nation’s first universitywide enterprise to embed integrative health approaches in research, teaching and patient care.

“Integrative health approaches” in this context means “alternative medicine.” You know what we’d call “alternative medicine” if it actually worked? “Medicine.”

I suppose if it’s used to actually do good science on crap like homeopathy and reiki and psychic vampire repellent sprays, sure, fine, whatever. But I suspect that it’ll be used to ram woo into the medical industry *despite* the science.

 Posted by at 11:54 pm
 Older Entries  Newer Entries