admin

Feb 182016
 

Now available… the first of two new US Aerospace Projects titles.

US Fighter Projects #1

US Fighter Projects #01 is now available (see HERE for the entire series). Issue #01 includes:

  • Tremulis “Zero Fighter:” A World War II era two-stage rocket propelled, vertically launched interceptor
  • North American Rockwell D-541-4 “Surprise Fighter:” An early stealth fighter concept with flip-out wings
  • Republic TFX: An unconventionally-configured variable-sweep design, competed to become the F-111
  • Martin Model 302: A large four-engined supersonic interceptor loaded with missiles
  • Convair Nuclear Powered Interceptor Configuration II: A single-seat design with a nuclear reactor
  • NAF Float-Wing Interceptor: A WWII small flying boat to be carried by small ships
  • Martin Pursuit-Type Airplane: An early WWII-era design with a prone pilot
  • Boeing Model 1074-0006: A 1980’s design for a hydrogen-fueled hypersonic monster

usfp01ad2 usfp01ad1

USFP #01 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4:

——–

——

US VTOL Projects #1

US VTOL Projects #01 is now available (see HERE for the entire series). Issue #01 includes:

  • Ryan Model 162: A three-lift-fan ground attack plane with a minimum wing
  • NACA VTOL Bomber: A slim six-engined supersonic concept
  • Bell X-14C: A three-engine low cost close support plane
  • Lockheed GL-224-2: A small rescue craft that can dock in flight with a C-130
  • Bell D270A-900-112: A tilt-rotor that has folding props
  • Boeing Model 837-313: A minor design for a fighter like a Harrier with variable-sweep wings
  • Hughes Hot Cycle Rotor/Wing Composite Research Aircraft: Use the exhaust from a jet engine to spin up a triangular rotor blade…
  • Lockheed CL-1026: A civilian derivative of the AH-56, to carry passengers from city center to city center

usvp01ad2 usvp01ad1

USVP #01 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4:

——–

——

 

 Posted by at 7:32 pm
Feb 172016
 

Anybody have experience using this, or something similar?

20 oz. Chroming Spray Paint

At this very moment I’m watching “All American Makers,” and there’s a couple guys flacking almost exactly this, claiming they invented it. It sure looks like they are claiming to have created something you can buy off the shelf.

 Posted by at 9:38 pm
Feb 162016
 

My interest in visiting my partial-ancestral homeland of Sweden declines by the hour:

Swedish police being ATTACKED as they struggle in ‘NO GO ZONES’ as migrant crime rockets

Some 52 areas have been put on a ‘”blacklist” which are then divided into three categories from “risk areas” to “seriously vulnerable”.

And the report revealed Sweden’s Capital Stockholm had over 20 no-go areas where over 75,000 people live. 

Spectacular.

Should be interesting to see what effect this has on the Swedish welfare state. By most metrics Sweden is already pretty poverty stricken, well below most US states (only Mississippi being poorer by many measures), so they don’t exactly have a whole lot of economic slack. Just absorbing hundreds of thousands of destitute refugees would be rough enough, but the fact that the refugees seem to be creating disproportionate strain on not just the welfare system but the criminal justice system is only going to make things… entertaining.

 Posted by at 10:31 pm
Feb 162016
 

Hey, how about this:

Bulky Cameras, Meet The Lens-less FlatCam

And this:

Eternal 5D data storage could record the history of humankind

What we have here is a new type of camera and an amazing data storage system. The camera is a digital imaging sensor, as you’d have in any camera, but without the glass or plastic lenses. Instead, the sensor is covered with a flat sheet pierced with a multitude of tiny pinholes. The result is a bajillion pinhole cameras each recording its own image; software then processes the data together. The article suggests a flat camera the size of a wall; this would see essentially *everything* in a room. Presumably this would allow for 3D imaging like the photo analyzer in “Blade Runner.”

The image quality currently being produced is pretty awful, but as they say, it’s early days. But at least they’re still using Lenna.

The second article includes this:

Using nanostructured glass, scientists from the University’s Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) have developed the recording and retrieval processes of five dimensional (5D) digital data by femtosecond laser writing.

The storage allows unprecedented properties including 360 TB/disc data capacity, thermal stability up to 1,000°C and virtually unlimited lifetime at room temperature (13.8 billion years at 190°C ) opening a new era of eternal data archiving.

It seems to be a ways away from home application, but the technology appears pretty remarkable. The researchers are apparently using disks not because the glass needs to spin, but out of convenience or convention. The laser-writer seems to scan back and forth in a linear fashion. This might mean that these “data crystals” could come in *any* shape. Thus any piece of glass could be encoded with vast amounts of data. Eyeglasses, bits of jewelry, smart phone cases, wrist watch lenses, the bottoms of drinking glasses, etc.

Irritatingly, while the article says that they can put 360 terabytes on a disk, it doesn’t define how big that disk is. Assuming they mean the size of a CD, 12 cm in diameter, this equates to about 3.2 terabytes per square centimeter. This means the data capacity of a good sized hard drive on something  the size of a fingernail (but apparently fairly thick). Something the size of a a cheap rhinestone bedazzled onto an awful sweater could probably hold a few gigabytes of data.

The data can’t be re-written, so it’s for archival purposes rather than general data use. But I’m intrigued by the idea of being able to back up my entire archive every few months onto a chunk of glass the size of a postage stamp.

No information is given on read/write speed.

The “eternal” nature of the data storage is of course questionable. Bring a hammer down on it, and the data is gone. This might be a dandy way to archive all of human knowledge for the future, but it’ll only be useful if people in the future can read it. And it’s of course by no means certain that people will be able to read this… or even recognize it. So if you really want to set up archives for deep time, you’ll need to have multi-layered archive that only open up when investigators reach certain tech levels. Perhaps a massive stone  edifice that only opens when the people around it learn to read it, and learn from it how to open the hidden lock. And inside that, a bronze archive that only opens when they’ve learned how to build electrical systems, and so on. How to keep people from simply battering they way through to the unreadable bits of glass in the middle? Dunno. Perhaps inside each archive isn’t the next archive, but the *map* to the next archive. Put the final full archive on the Moon or Mars, with backups on Ceres and Vesta.

 Posted by at 9:04 am
Feb 152016
 

Abortion is illegal in Brazil. And if there was ever a group you’d expect to be deathly opposed to abortion, it would be Brazilian *Baptists.* Well, guess what:

Baptists indicate support for abortion in Zika hit nations

In short, the rise of panic over the Zika virus, which seems to cause microcephaly in babies born to infected mothers, is causing some anti-abortion groups to consider supporting abortion.

Assume this actually happens: religious groups come to support abortion in the case of Zika. Well… microcephaly is hardly the worst thing that can medically befall a fetus (insert joke HERE about the career opportunities in politics and entertainment that are open to people with walnut-sized brains). So the field seems wide open for categories of “life unworthy of life” that can be supported by different groups.

 Posted by at 2:46 pm
Feb 142016
 

Russia warns of ‘new Cold War’ as Saudi Arabia and Turkey ‘threaten anti-ISIS ground offensive in Syria’

See, now, if the damnable KGB-backed anti-nuclear activists hadn’t succeeded in the 1970’s in their appointed task of ruining the American nuclear industry, right now we’d have a *lot* more nuclear powerplants. Bigger, more powerful, more efficient, more cost effective and safer plants. Probably not enough to replace the need for middle eastern oil, but it would have been enough to make a serious dent especially when you factor in sales of advanced reactors to Europe and Asia.  And then… not only would forces of evil like ISIS and SA and Putin not have access to so much oil money… we wouldn’t need to *care* what’s going on in the middle east.

But, hey, 80’s nostalgia is back. Since the 80’s is where I spend my teens, I have a soft spot for that decade… but I could probably do without a return to Russians threatening to nuke the US off the map. Especially now that the US has fallen so far backwards in basic nuclear arsenal maintenance, nevermind developing and fielding new weapons.

 Posted by at 8:47 pm
Feb 142016
 

SAS sniper bullet decapitates ‘ISIS executioner’ while he teaches terror recruits how to behead prisoners

A shot from 1,200 meters knocked the noggin off a scumbag while in the process of scumbaggery. What’s not to like?

The shooter seems to have used a DAN 338, an Israeli (ha!) bolt action rifle chambering .338 Lapua. Sadly, the story does not explain what happened next. One hopes that a fuller description would include phrases like “subsequent shots killed all the ISIS jackholes” and “the prisoners were rescued.”

 Posted by at 8:25 pm
Feb 142016
 

1: “Deadpool:” violent, profane, lots of nakidity… and absolutely hilarious. Worth seeing even if, like me, you know diddly-squat about the comic book.

2: “True Detective, season 1:” Only eight episodes, but, dayum, that there was a good show. On the surface it’s a cop drama… but underneath – and not really that far underneath – it’s Lovecraftian cosmic horror. There are explicit callouts to bits of Lovecraft lore, specifically the Yellow King and Carcosa. Granted these predate Loftcraft by a few decades, but he and his literary associates adopted them. Additionally, Matthew McConaughey’s character Rust Cohle is just about the best personification of the sort of nihilist/apatheist worldview projected in the Cthulhu mythos that I’ve ever seen.

A note, though: in one episode of “True Detective,” there are extended shots of a completely buck nekkid Alexandria Daddario. If this is the sort of thing you’d find unpleasant to watch… well, let’s just say you and I view the world very differently.

I understand that season two of “True Detective” told an entirely different story with an entirely different cast

 Posted by at 8:01 pm
Feb 132016
 

No doubt Obama is salivating over the opportunity to install another Justice; but CNN is reporting that Senate Republicans say they’re not going to even consider another nomination until the next President. They are, I’m sure, hoping for a Republican President who will nominate a Justice who will actually accept the Constitution as written. But chances are pretty good that come January the nomination will come in from President Clinton. or even President Sanders. I shudder to imagine who *he* would nominate. Is Gus Hall still available?

Bendover.Here.Comes.the

 Posted by at 4:39 pm
Feb 132016
 

Well, this should be fun:

APNewsBreak: EU is poised to restrict passport-free travel

Shockingly, the flood of refugee/colonists into Europe seems to be unnerving various governments. The trigger is that Greece isn’t doing an adequate job of controlling its borders, and under the rules of the EU, that allows the individual nations to set up border controls for up to two years. It seems Germany, France, Austria, Denmark and Norway are interested in setting up long-term border controls.

 Posted by at 1:37 am