Panorama taken a few nights ago showing the Thatcher, Utah, megalopolis with Venus and Mars. This is reduced in size to 10% of the original… yeah, it’s a sizable panorama.
Feb 162017
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Feb 152017
In advance of a project a little ways down the road, I have procured a new camera (Nikon D5500), and have been running it through its paces. Last night I did some night sky photography, catching a whole lot of satellites. Upon reviewing the photos, one satellite seemed to do something a little odd. As far as I can tell it’s not due to the camera screwing up in any way.
Feb 142017
Because why not, here’s a link to a complete PDF scan of the “Vistas of Science” book from 1961, “Spacecraft.” Nothing too exciting… a book meant for kids. But it was a book meant to explain spacecraft to kids in a era when the future looked particularly bright for spacecraft.
Cynicism alert: one might be tempted to wonder why this has remained available on the NASA technical report server. Shouldn’t it have been removed as an ITAR risk?
Spacecraft
Feb 142017
Tennessee bill would bar suits against drivers who hit protestors
“A person driving an automobile who is exercising due care and injures another person who is participating in a protest or demonstration and is blocking traffic in a public right of way is immune from civil liability for such injury.”
Makes sense to me. With the rise of violent protesters in recent years, many of whom think that blocking traffic is in and of itself a worthy goal, getting the hell out of Dodge is more important than ever.
Feb 142017
Let us not forget the true meaning of this day…
Feb 132017
Nazis. Nazis everywhere.
It was quickly pointed out that these are not the sort of misshapen swastikas that you could expect to see scrawled on a wall or sidewalks (perhaps more likely by the “victim,” as a way to gin up sympathy), but are instead construction markers for utility or sewer workers.
I expect we’re going to see a *lot* of sloppy swastikas over the next few years. A tiny number of actual neo-Nazis/white supremecists, a larger number of juvenile trolls, and a substantial number of “anti fascists” trying to fearmonger, agitate, raise funds or just plain cause trouble.
And then there’ll be the idiots who fearmonger over honest symbols that have nothing to do with politics.
Feb 132017
The goofy idea to convert a B-21 into Air Force One? Yeah, shockingly, it didn’t originate with anyone who actually matters, but rather with a consulting firm acting on their own initiative.
A Bargain for President Trump’s Air Force One
Wright Williams & Kelly, Inc.’s (WWK) aerospace and defense team took up President Trump’s challenge and confirmed that the price of Air Force One Program can come WAY DOWN!
The mark of a truly serious proposal is phraseology such as “WAY DOWN!”
But hey, if you want to read more about it, they are ready to sell you a copy of their report.
What bugs me is that Aviation Week ran this as meaningful news. Meh.
Feb 132017
Newcomer centre has no more room for border-crossing refugees
It seems a lot of asylum seekers are flooding into Canada… from the US. The article is incredibly vague about who these asylum seekers are. They don’t seem to be the likes of Hollywood celebrities who promised to leave the US if Trump won. Heck, they don’t even seem to be US citizens.
Given all the platitudes we keep hearing about how great it is to import masses of immigrants from very alien cultures, Canada should be thrilled to death for this to happen.
Feb 132017
One of President Giant Middle Finger’s campaign promises was to fix up Americas rather decrepit physical infrastructure. If there were any doubts that things are troubled, the dam in Oroville, California, seems to be working overtime to dispel them.
Oroville Dam Spillway Failure: Nearly 190,000 Ordered to Evacuate
This is especially depressing when one considers the tens of trillions that have been squandered over the decades on useless and downright counter-productive social welfare programs. Imagine what we could have done if, say, half of the Medicare expenses had instead been spent on infrastructure. And the space program, so long as I’m dreaming.
This is a dam in California. One wonders if it would be currently having these problems if California and San Francisco and the like had spent there money not on making bums comfortable, but instead putting them to work. A few thousand drugged-up homeless equipped with shovels and notified that “you want lunch, you do work” could have moved a whole lot of earth over the last few decades.
Feb 122017
Has China beaten Nasa in building warp-drive technology dubbed the ‘impossible engine’?
Oy.
OK, the basic claim seems to be that China has built an “EM engine.” Fine, whatever. But the article goes off the rails in a hurry. Firstly, there’s the title of the article: the Em engine is *not* a warp drive. Then the article claims that an EM engine could send a ship to Mars in a matter of weeks. Ummm… no. The tests that have been done have shown that if there is any net thrust at all (and there’s every reason to suspect that this is actually a matter of experimental error), the levels of thrust are *exceedingly* low. Instead of shoving a ship to Mars in a matter of weeks, a few weeks at full thrust will *maybe* rack up a few meter per second of delta V.
Fake space news, baby.