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Panorama Previews

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, new products, news, photography  11 Responses »
May 112017
 

Selecting images from the recent trip and stitching together panoramas is an ongoing effort, and will be for a while yet. The panoramas range from the “artistic: that looks great” to the “useful for references: that looks kinda odd.” Many of them have missing sections, but so long as the panorama captured the aircraft I was after, having a corner missing is ok.

The combination of a telephoto lens with a 24 megapixel sensor has led to some *monstrous* panoramas. For example:

This “partial” panorama of the X-15 is 40,700 pixels wide. At 300 dpi (pretty much the standard for photo printing), that’s 135 inches wide. That’s 11.3 *feet* (or 3.45 meters) wide.

Another partial, this time of the XB-70. At 300 dpi, this one would be 14.75 feet long. If you look just behind the cockpit side window you can just make out some markings.

Well… this is a crop of the full-rez panorama showing just those markings:

Balcony panorama at the SAC Museum in Nebraska:

 

Balcony overview panorama of the Cold War gallery at the USAF Museum:

XB-70, X-15, lifting bodies, Gemini B:

Balcony overview panorama of Building 4 at the USAF museum:

The “Valkyrie cafe” at the USAF museum has a large mural painting of the XB-70. It’s several dozen feet wide and impossible to photograph straight-on (not only is there stuff in the way, it’s too huge for the space available). But there is one spot where you can get the whole thing. So, a number of photos were stitched together then “warped” to get it back into rectangular format. And the end result is pretty spiffy, and at 300 dpi it’d print out at 53 inches long. Needs some color correction.

These images have of course been scaled waaaaaay down to fit on the blog. Those who signed up for the DVD will of course get the full rez versions (though some compromises may be needed… that ginormous XB-70 panorama is over 800 megabytes).

 Posted by at 12:06 pm

He’s a good kid…

 AARRRGH, blather, dumbassery, Forward!, news, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  8 Responses »
May 102017
 

Oy.

In short: Leon Balfour Jr., a 16 year old “kid,” decided it would be a fine and witty jape to pick up an old lady, body slam her onto the concrete, then throw her into a swimming pool (after potentially bashing her head in and wrecking her shoulder). One might think “hmm, that sure sounds like attempted murder to me,” but, nope.

Marvel at the ballsiness of the family lawyer claiming that not only is this a “good kid,” but that “his family is a good family.” Yes, his family is so good that his father, Leon Balfour, will be a guest of the Florida penal system until at least 2027 due to a slight incident of first degree murder.

And to be sure, Leon here will be made to pay. Why, he’s under home detention! Sure, he’ll still be allowed to travel with his basketball team, but hey. Home detention. For three whole agonizing weeks.

A note: this 16-year-old was able to pick up and haul around an old lady. Trayvon Martin, long portrayed in the media by way of photos from when he was 12, was 17 when he was shot while bashing George Zimmermans head into the concrete sidewalk. The point: anyone who thinks that “teenager” equates to “small helpless child” has apparently not seen a whole lot of teenagers these days. Or any days.

But hey. Rejoice, friends! The children are or future. In the video, pay attention to more than the kid assaulting the lady. Pay attention to the partygoers. The ones calling out “throw her in” beforehand. The ones laughing afterwards. In just a few short years (or even months), they will be old enough to vote and hold down jobs.

Our nations future is secure.

 Posted by at 6:13 pm

…… aaaaaaaannnnnd we’re back

 aircraft, blather, news, photography  3 Responses »
May 092017
 

As some knew and others may have guessed, I’ve been traveling for the past three or so weeks. This excursion included visits to:

  • The SAC Museum in Nebraska
  • The Ropkey Armor Museum in Indiana
  • The National Museum of the USAF in Dayton, Ohio
  • Wings Over The Rockies museum in Denver, Colorado

This included putting the new Nikon D5500 through its paces, cranking out 5300+ museum photos at around 75 gigabytes. The primary goal of the exercise was to photo the bejesus out of the XB-70 in Dayton, which task has been accomplished as best as possible within the crowded confines of the museums Building 4.

A whole lot of processing is now needed, along with catching up on stuff. Stuff including picking up four undoubtedly annoyed cats from the vet and re-integrating them into a house that smells kinda… stale.

 Posted by at 8:18 pm

They’ll hand out degrees to just anyone these days

 aircraft, Forward!, Hmm..., Meh., news, politics  5 Responses »
May 082017
 

Florida University to Award Posthumous Degree to Trayvon Martin

Bash someones head against a sidewalk and get plugged for your troubles and you, too, may be eligible for a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical science from Florida Memorial University.

The cynic in me wonders, though, if this might be a sneaky back-door way to pad the affirmative action numbers. Someday soon, some Diversity Officer might actually say something like “sure, our students are 99.9% Non-Person-Of-Color, but a full 15% of our degrees went to POCs.” And all they had to do was hand out some nice, cheap degrees to people who didn’t even go there, and they’ll get the Feds off their backs.

 Posted by at 12:07 am

You’ve burned me before, Ridley…

 AARRRGH, art, Hmm..., Meh., news, science fiction, ಠ_ಠ  3 Responses »
May 072017
 

I prit near lost my tiny little mind some years ago when, sitting in a movie theater, the trailers came on and the first one for “Prometheus” started. I was hooked from the instant I recognized that “Alien” music. And then… I actually saw “Prometheus.”

Hmmmmph.

So, there will soon be a sequel to “Prometheus,” “Alien: Covenant.” I’ve kept my enthusiasm down to a dull “meh.” If early reports are correct, I might have been right to do so.

Alien: Covenant May Be the Biggest Disappointment of the Summer

 Posted by at 9:44 pm

Lame movie tie-in, but spiffy astronomy

 art, awesomeness, news, photography, science, spacecraft  No Responses »
May 052017
 

Ugh:

A Lot of Galaxies Need Guarding in this NASA Hubble View

Awesome:

That there is the galaxy cluster Abel 370, several hundred galaxies located some four billion light years away. There is a *lot* of gravitational lensing going on here. I believe the only foreground stars visible are the dozen or so bright objects with the “lens flare;” everything else is an entire galaxy of billions to trillions of stars.

Tell me that ain’t awesome.

SCIENCE!

 

 Posted by at 10:02 pm

Yet another reason to not do business in California

 AARRRGH, blather, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., Hmm..., news, politics, rockets, ಠ_ಠ  13 Responses »
May 052017
 

Goose that lays golden eggs? KILL IT!!!!

California seeks to tax rocket launches, which are already taxed

Take a read through the proposed legislation. I’m not a law-talkin’-guy, so it reads like so much gibberish to me.

 

1.
Mileage ratio numerator. The numerator of the mileage ratio for each launch contract shall be
the total projected mileage that all launch vehicles launched or planned to be launched pursuant to that
launch contract will travel within this state. If a launch occurs or is planned to occur in this state, the
contribution of that launch to the numerator of the mileage ratio shall be 62 statutory miles. If a launch
occurs or is planned to occur outside of this state, the contribution of that launch to the numerator of
the mileage ratio shall be zero.
2.
Mileage ratio denominator. The denominator of the mileage ratio for each launch contract shall
be the total mileage that all launch vehicles launched pursuant to that contract are projected at the time
of the execution of the contract to travel from launch to separation.
3.
If the Internal Revenue Service or the Franchise Tax Board is prevented by reasons of secrecy or
confidentiality imposed by governmental authorities from determining the projected mileage of any
launch contract, the mileage ratio denominator of such contracts shall be conclusively presumed to be
310 statutory miles multiplied by the number of launches pursuant to that contract.
4.
Mileage factor numerator. For each launch contract under which revenue is recognized in a
taxable year, the mileage ratio for that contract shall be multiplied by the revenue recognized from that
contract in the taxable year. The product shall be added to the products for each launch contract for
which the taxpayer recognizes revenue in the taxable year the sum of which shall be the numerator of
the mileage factor.
5.
Mileage factor denominator. The total revenue recognized from all launch contracts during the
taxable year shall be the denominator of the mileage factor.

Not sure what all that blather says, but I’m sure it can’t be good.

 Posted by at 2:25 pm

Using technology to further BS

 AARRRGH, blather, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Meh., politics, THIS is why Trump won, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  5 Responses »
May 042017
 

STEM is values-neutral. By that I mean, with engineering you can design a better hammer… but that hammer could be used to drive a nail to built a kitten orphanage (good), or it could be used to knock someones brains out (quite possibly bad). Here’s an example of STEM, in the form of an app developed for smart phones (themselves the result of thousands of years of STEM work), being used to promote superstitious, fictitious and malicious bullcrap:

Believe in equal pay for equal work?
Put your money where your mouth is.

In short: this app – apparently not designed in entire seriousness, but as some sort of attempt at what SJWs consider to be humor – divides a lunch bill “fairly.” Now, to my mind if a group of people go to a restaurant and want to divide the bill fairly, the easiest way would be to simply get separate bills, and each pay their own way. The guy who ordered the lobster and steak would pay more than the guy who ordered a cup of soup because he ordered the more expensive item. Simple, right? But this apps developers have different ideas. The bill is split up evenly among the number of people on it… and then the fractions are weighted based on each persons “privilege.” Using the long-discredited, yet still quite popular, delusion of the “wage gap,” the white guy is charged a buck, the black woman $0.64, and so on.

Of course, this will be perfectly “fair” for the white guy office drone out to lunch with the black female CEO…

Again, this was done as satire to teach white people that they suck and will perpetually be browbeaten over invented nonsense. But apparently the app is real and downloadable… and if recent history of apparently nonsensical stuff (and I’m looking at *you,* Nordstrom’s “muddy jeans”) teaches us anything, it’s that a whole lot pf people will willingly glom onto complete nonsense – often at considerable cost to themselves- if they think that it makes them cool, hip, popular, politically correct. People *will* obtain and use this app in all seriousness, thinking that by screwing over one person in order to make someone else feel better, they’re actually carrying out acts of “justice.” But it seems to me that what an app like this will really do is help speed the segregation process along. if you were invited to lunch with people who you knew were going to financially screw you over… would you go? I’d be brown-baggin’ it. And I’d remember that those people are *not* my friends, but are rather thieves, idiots or ideological monsters.

 

 

 Posted by at 10:49 pm

Aerospace Art

 art, awesomeness, history, projects, rockets, spacecraft  2 Responses »
May 032017
 

A number of vintage 8X10 glossies of aerospace concept art (all apparently North American/Rockwell) were recently sold on eBay. These included Apollo/Skylab, early Space Shuttle concepts, advanced spacecraft (including a manned mission to Jupiter and NERVA tugs) and various space probes and space station designs. Fortunately, the seller provided fairly good scans. I have collected them and uploaded them to the APR Patreon Extras Dropbox folder for 2017-05. If you are interested in accessing these and other aerospace historical goodies, consider signing up for the APR Patreon.

 Posted by at 9:04 pm
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