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Aug 122017
 

Country music legend Glen Campbell died a day or two ago. While the tributes are rolling in from the sources you’d expect, here’s one you might not: Alice Cooper.

Additional “HUH?!?!” worthy stuff is Alice here discusses his Christian faith. Huh.

 

 Posted by at 11:26 pm
Aug 122017
 

The H-33 orbiter was designed in early 1971 to be launched atop a reusable manned flyback booster, a truly giant supersonic vehicle. The orbiter itself was similar in configuration to the Shuttle Orbiter as actually built, but it differed in that it had internal liquid oxygen tanks and expendable external hydrogen tanks, rather than a single large ET. The NASM has some good photos of a display model of the full system.

The H-33 was a popular design, at least at Grumman. A number of display models were made of it, including this detailed “cutaway” model made – seemingly – of plexiglas.

I have uploaded the full-rez images to the 2017-08 APR Extras Dropbox folder, available to all $4 and up APR Patrons. If interested, wander on by the APR Patreon and sign up. Lots of aerospace goodies available.

 

 Posted by at 10:26 pm
Aug 122017
 

For what it’s worth:

North Korea’s “not quite” ICBM can’t hit the lower 48 states

Some folks associated with the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists examined the trajectories of recent Nork ICBM test flights, looked at the presumed performance of the motors and propellant, and have concluded that the Hwasong-14 “ICBM” is a “sub-ICBM.” One of the authors of the study is a long-time critic of missile defense systems, so YMMV.

Even if the missile was a full-up ICBM capable of lobbing to New York City the kind of nuke the Norks could actually build, I would not bet large sums on the missile working as advertised in operational practice. That said… Lil’ Kim seems like a nut. Give him a weapon that will probably fail and tell him it’ll probably work (and I imagine his underlings will say what they think they need to in order to avoid the firing squad), and who knows, he might decide that The Stars Are Right and it’s time for his apotheosis via nuclear fire.

I’d be less sanguine about the chances of success for a missile like this lobbing a nuke *over* the US. A few dozen kilotons a few hundred miles up could wreak a whole lot of havoc via EMP.

 

 Posted by at 9:27 pm
Aug 122017
 

So Charlottesville, VA, had that latest of fads: fascists protesting countered by fascistic anti-fascists. But things got interesting when a car plowed into the fascistic anti-fascists:

Clearly, somebody here intentionally plowed into a crowd of protestors for the purpose of death and mayhem.

So far as I’ve seen, the local PD hasn’t said who the driver was even though he’s in custody.But the *RUMOR* *MILL* has themselves a suspect:

BREAKING: #Charlottesville Car Terrorist Is Anti-Trump, Open Borders Druggie

UPDATE: The link above former went to a site that named names, but now the page is blank. This could mean a whole bunch of things, not least of which is they were wrong.

UPDATE to the UPDATE: A new suspect has been floated:

James Alex Fields Jr: Full Story & Must-See Details Of Suspect

In this new article, the previously mentioned suspect denies all involvement… which makes a good alibi, given as how he wasn’t actually in police custody at the time, and the driver of the car *was.* Turns out the previous “suspect’ was actually the previous owner of the car, but he sold it. The new suspect has not been officially confirmed as such by the authorities. The new article also suggests that the police think the driver *may* have been driving like a madman out of fear because his car was getting swarmed by violent protesters, but that seems kinda weak.

UPDATE to the UPDATE to the UPDATE:

CNN has confirmed that Fields is the suspect; they’ve shown his mugshot. So far no word about his politicas, but he’s reportedly a registered Republican.

It will be interesting to see the political fallout no matter who this was. If it turns out the driver is a white supremacist, a neo-Nazi, a neo-Confederate or any other scumbag like that, then that will be proclaimed far and wide, and used to smear anything to the right of the fascistic anti-fascists. If, however, it turns out the driver was one of the Antifa dirtbags… well, this’ll make for some interesting spin.

 

 Posted by at 4:47 pm
Aug 112017
 

Tonight while out at the far end of a walk several cats came out and were friendly. One is a pretty tiny mommacat with her kittens; but just a few days ago she had herself a great big belly, so I imagine there’s another set of smaller kittens out there somewhere.

 Posted by at 10:08 pm
Aug 112017
 

UPDATE: Sold.

some more books. As before, I’m starting off by selling these as a single lot. If you are interested, let me know via email or comment. If nobody wants the lot, I’ll start breaking it up in a day or two.

The total of all the individual books here is $116. If you want the lot, the price is $90 plus postage, which if you’re in the US, will probably be about $15 for media mail.

“Victory Through Air Power” by Seversky, 1942. Good shape, no dust jacket. $4.00

“Royal Air Force Flying Review,” hardbound collection, some exterior water stains but otherwise intact, Volume XVII, #1-12, 1961-2. $25.00

“US Fighters,” by Jones, 1975. $4.00

“Aviation, The complete story of mans conquest of the air,” by Gunston, 1978, hardbound, torn dust jacket. $3.00

“Huey,” by Drendel, hardbound, slightly torn dust jacket, 1983. $9.00

“Gunships A Pictorial history of Spooky,” by Davis. hardbound, dust jacket in good shape, 1982. $5.00

“Pedigree of Champions, Boeing since 1916,” softbound, Boeing, 1963. $4.00

“727 Fuel Burn Executive Summary,” Boeing, 1982. $6.00

“757 Tail Strike Assessment,” Boeing, 1990, $6.00

“Tail Strike Event Analysis,” Boeing, 1991. $6.00

“767 Advanced Composites,” Boeing, 1981. $6.00

” Large Jet Aircraft Operation on Unsurfaced Fields,” Boeing, 1964. $6.00

“Leading Edge Development Program,” General Dynamics, 1987. $6.00

“Status Report 707/727/737 Division -Renton,” Boeing, 1972. $6.00

“Boeing 747 Cargo and Baggage Systems,” Boeing, 1967. $6.00

“Soaring Eagles McDonnell-Douglas F-15,” by Scutts, 1990. Hardbound, great shape, $4.00

“Modern Warplanes,” by Richardson, hardbound, 1982, great shape. $4.00

“757  Facility and Equipment Planning,” Boeing, 1982 $6.00

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Posted by at 5:45 pm
Aug 112017
 

There is a long tradition in literature & film of single-sex environments. Off the top of my head, “male-only” societies tend to be places like prisons, penal colonies, industrial facilities, military facilities or ships. Those places where he men know that they will be in a male-only society *forever,* such as prisons, tend to be grim, hopeless places where the male characters either live only to escape, or live only because it’s simply in their nature to fight till the end.

On the other hand, “women-only” societies seem to be more common as fantasy & sci-fi situations, and tend to be shown as much happier places, often utopias *because* there are no evil horrible nasty no-good men around.

Now, we know a few things about male-only societies, for the simple fact that the real world provides them. Prisons and naval ships are real things. Female-only societies have been fewer and more tenuous… the occasional womens prison, of course, and towns where all the men left to go fight a war or something (but this is invariable a temporary situation).

Male-only prisons *are* grim places, especially for straight males. A colony on a distant alien world where the *one* colony ship crashed and all the womens cryo-storage tubes were mashed into a hillside would, it seems to me, be a profoundly joyless place. But we keep seeing tales of women-only utopias, like in the recent “Wonder Woman.”

But would a society truly dominated by women really be a utopia? Here’s where things get tricky for Social Justice Warriors. On the one hand, they keep yapping on about how there are no fundamental differences between men and women, and thus the relative dearth of da wimmins in STEM fields is due to social issues, not biological ones. On the other hand, they keep demanding that women get a shot to run the show, because they’d be better at it.

Buh.

Now, here’s an observation I’ve made over the years, one that has been backed up by both men and women: men and women are different. One of the ways in which we’re different is in how we deal with rivals. *Generally,* men *tend* to be more open about rivalries, sometimes up to and including the likes of arguing, yelling at each other, threats and finally physical conflict. Sometimes one or both of the men is a true asshole, in which case anything could happen; but in many cases, once the two had hashed it out… it’s *done.* Sometimes lifelong friendships are built on an initial beatdown. This appears a *lot* in literature, from Gilgamesh and Enkidu throwing down, to Arthur and Lancelot going at it, to Robin Hood and Little John, to, one of my favorites, Sean Thornton and Will Danaher making a mess of the Irish countryside.

Women, on the other hand, seem to have a different approach to rivalries. Sometimes it gets physical, resulting in the legendary “catfight,” but mostly it *seems* to involve a sort of acidic passive aggressive fake friendship. Smiles all around but with gossipy stabs in the back. Poison in the drink rather than a punch to the face.

But hey, I’m a guy. I’m not supposed to be allowed to have an opinion on matters such as this; I’m certainly not supposed to express an opinion that goes beyond “I think all women are the equal to all men in all things and at all times and please stop asking me about which woman I think would win the world titles in boxing and the UFC.” So, here’s a woman’s take on the subject:

The Myth of the Peaceful Woman

So what would a world made up totally of women really be like? It would be tyrannical beyond belief. No one would be willing to speak against the accepted narrative unless they were willing to be unpersoned or killed. Think of a mix between 1984, the very worst social aspects of socialist regimes, and the Borg. There would be constant pushing for position, usually by starting whisper campaigns or setting someone above oneself up to be badly embarrassed. Look at the SJWs of today’s world and see how they operate. That’s what it would look like, writ large across the entire planet. They attack anyone outside the group who doesn’t comply with their demands, and if someone inside the group says a single word out of line according to the ever-shifting standards the entire group turns on them without mercy. The only way to get back in their good graces is to loudly proclaim your “sin” and accept their abuse until they get bored of you. Even afterward, you’ll forever be “tainted” with the sin of noncompliance.

The comments section of that blog post, unlike the vast majority of comments sections are the internet, is full of reasoned discussion and some pretty good points.

 

 

 Posted by at 4:26 pm