With the upgraded WordPress, maybe YouTube embedding will work…
[youtube ya1UYsqf2hw]
Oct 132010
Oct 132010
Remember the now-bankrupt Sea Launch enterprise? It was hardly a new concept. Reproduced below is a snippet from the September 1961 issue of “Space World” magazine, showing a concept that was largely identical.. an offshore platform to be used for space launch.
Sep 082010
While getting the mail, I saw one of the large local hawks circling low overhead, so I grabbed the camera to take some photos. When I got back outside it had climbed substantially, but it was joined by two others. For all I know, this was some sort of affection-filled mating dance, but it sure looked like these two were trying to kill each other…
Jul 142010
Along with the two-stage “Saturn v derived” design previously shown, in 2002 NASA also looked at a vehicle composed of “Magnum” core vehicle (essentially a Shuttle external tank heavily modified into an in-line launch vehicle) with four Shuttle RSRMs strapped around it for increased performance. The payload shroud was also increased in diameter.
The core vehicle was equipped with two RS-83 hydrogen/oxygen engines on the first stage. The solid rocket boosters were the planned five-segment versions of the standard Shuttle RSRMs. Payload to a 150 nautical mile circular orbit was 106.6 metric tons, notably better than the performance of the two-stage vehicle.
And here’s the CAD drawing:
Mar 102010
Had some fog Monday AM.
Jan 312010
Meet ‘Giant George’ the 7ft-long blue great dane who could be the world’s tallest dog
Yow.
The gentle giant, who measures 7ft 3ins from nose to tail, could be a prime contender to take the title from the former record holder, Gibson, a harlequin Great Dane who passed away from cancer last August.Now George’s owners, David and Christine Nasser, are awaiting confirmation from Guinness World Records to see if he has achieved the lofty heights.
‘He’s 42.625 inches at the shoulder,’ said David. ‘He’s very very unique.’
Yeah, yeah, that’s cool and all, but this will drain all remaining shreds of your faith in humanity.
Dec 312009
So, I left some Diet Cherry Pepsi in the garage. As tends to happen in winter, the garage got cold. Damn cold. Cold enough to freeze soda. And since ice is lower density than liquid water, that means the frozen pop took up more space, pushing against the walls of the can. Additionally, it compressed the gas in the can. The end result is high pressure, high enough to burst the can.
This does not surprise me. That the pressure was high enough to blow the end off the can, in the process not only blowing the end of the can through the cardboard box, but also projecting the can itself through the other side of the cardboard box, shooting it across the garage leaving a trail of chunky frozen soda in its wake (and sprayed all over), took me a bit by surprise.
Nov 262009
This time in New Zealand.
In New Zealand’s case, the figures published on NIWA’s [the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric research] website suggest a strong warming trend in New Zealand over the past century:
But analysis of the raw climate data from the same temperature stations has just turned up a very different result:
In this case, there *may* be a good explanation for this:
NIWA’s analysis of measured temperatures uses internationally accepted techniques, including making adjustments for changes such as movement of measurement sites. For example, in Wellington, early temperature measurements were made near sea level, but in 1928 the measurement site was moved from Thorndon (3 metres above sea level) to Kelburn (125 m above sea level). The Kelburn site is on average 0.8°C cooler than Thorndon, because of the extra height above sea level.
However, once again the raw data is not being made available, nor are the codes used to analyse the data. Now, if this was being done by a private organization on their own dime, then they can do with the data whatever they like, including hiding it from the public. If this was being doen by the government, but the results were for some military program that requires secrecy, then again keeping it from the public would make sense. but this is being done using taxpayer funding, for a reason that is far from secret. There is no good reason to not release the raw data.
Oct 042009
South of Tremonton, Utah.
Sep 202009
Was it only April? There was President Obama, speaking (as is his wont) in Prague, about the Iranian nuclear program and ballistic-missile capability, and saluting America’s plucky allies: “The Czech Republic and Poland have been courageous in agreeing to host a defense against these missiles,” he declared. “As long as the threat from Iran persists, we will go forward with a missile-defense system that is cost-effective and proven.”
On Thursday, the administration scrapped its missile-defense plans for Eastern Europe. The “courageous” Czechs and Poles will have to take their chances. Did the “threat from Iran” go away? Not so’s you’d notice. The dawn of the nuclear ayatollahs is perhaps only months away, and, just in case the Zionists or (please, no tittering) the formerly Great Satan is minded to take ’em out, Tehran will shortly be taking delivery of a bunch of S-300 anti-aircraft batteries from (ta-da!) Russia. Fancy that.
Awesome. Not only taking a giant dump on our allies, but also kowtowing to those who would gladly arm our enemies.
Oh, and flat-out lying. I’m amazed that anyone still supports Barky. Now, couple the foreign policy of appeasign those who would harm us while crapping on our allies with this:
Rising Debt May Cause Sun to Set on U.S. Economy
As an economic power, the U.S. may go the way of the British Empire because of the government’s increasing debt burden, according to Richard A. Posner, an economist and federal judge.
The CHART OF THE DAY shows how the public debt, or the national debt aside from liabilities for entitlement programs, has climbed in the past year.
…
Declining tax revenue, rising Medicare costs, congressional reluctance to cut spending or raise levies, and the likely cost of efforts to overhaul health care and promote climate control will push the debt higher, in Posner’s view.“At some point the wheels may start coming off the chassis,” he wrote. “The United States may find itself in the kind of downward economic spiral in which ‘developing’ countries often find themselves.” He drew the comparison with the British Empire, whose economic position in the early 20th century was similar to the U.S. role today.
It’s becoming more and more difficult to see Obama’s long term goals as anything but eliminating the US as a world player.