Bonhams, the high-end auction house, is auctioning off a single pane of glass. Doesn’t sound like much, until you get the details. It’s 54 inches long by 36 inches high, six inches thick and weighs 1,500 pounds. It is composed of 70% lead oxide; this makes it structurally sucko… but it also makes it a good blocker of radiation. Which is the point: this window oversaw plutonium production for the Manhattan Project at the Hanford facility in Washington state.
Al Jazeera publishes an anti-nuclear screed.
Nuclear solutions to climate change are anything but
Gee golly wow, nuclear powerplants take effort to build and uranium takes effort to mine, so I guess nuclear power is just a horrible solution for climate change.
Hint: not the US.
Two UAE reactors should be operational by 2020 and Saudi Arabia could complete twelve nuclear reactors from 2022-2034
Why is it that the middle east is preparing for a post-oil world… but we’re not? Bah.
So if Scotland decides to split from the UK, one of the issues will be that the British navy’s Trident missile subs are based in Scotland. There are apparently currently no good Trident bases in England or Wales. So where would the subs go? It looks like the US is a distinct possibility:
EXCLUSIVE: Send British nukes to US if Scotland votes Yes say military chiefs
Spotted on ebay a while back. The writeups suggested that this was the actual SNAP 8 #2 reactor, but it sure looks like a mockup to me. The SNAP-8 reactor could generate a healthy 1 megawatt of thermal energy using 18 pounds of nuclear fuel.
Issues 09 and 10 of US Bomber Projects is now available (see HERE for the entire series). Issue #09 includes:
- Boeing Model 464-33-0: A turboprop B-52 predecessor
- Consolidated Army Bombardment Flying Wing: A ground attacker with an extreme mode of attack
- GE Supersonic System 6X: A Mach 3 nuclear-powered bomber
- Convair B/J-58: A supercuising version of the Hustler
- Boeing model 484-2-2: AB-58 competitor
- Northrop 464L: A blended wing/body spaceplane
- Martin Model 223-9: a 1944 step on the road to the XB-48
- Boeing Model 800-15A: A Mach 3.5 hydrogen fueled design of incredible range
USBP#09 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4:
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Issue #10 includes:
- Boeing Model 464-34-3: A turboprop B-52 predecessor
- Martin Model 192-5: A medium-sized flying wing
- Republic Mach 7: a relatively small high-speed design
- Convair WS-125A: A large nuclear powered supersonic design
- Boeing model 484-415: A jet-powered supersonic flying boat
- Boeing 464L: Boeings first Dyna Soar
- Martin Model 223-10: a 1944 step on the road to the XB-48
- Lockheed CL-1301-1: A very small VTOL ground attacker
USBP#10 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4:
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US Bomber Projects issues 09 and 10 are now done, and will be available for sale just as soon as I get all the requisite website blahblah worked out. Hopefully tonight. I have issues 11 and 12 planned out, though still quite a bit of drafting to do.
The USBP series has been modestly successful (not blisteringly so, but ok, I guess…). I’m pondering doing the same format but with something other than bombers. Other concepts include:
- US Fighter Projects
- US Transport Projects (jetliners, cargo, civvies, SSTs, HSTs, etc.)
- US Recon & Experimental Projects
- US Launch Vehicle Projects
- US Spacecraft Projects (spaceplanes, moon landers, Mars ships, etc.)
- US Helicopter Projects
So, a few questions for commentors:
1) What did I leave out?
2) What would you most like to see? Some of these have a much bigger database to work from than others, of course.
In the innumerable CAD diagrams I’ve created and will – presumably – continue to create, I often include a simple human figure to provide a sense of scale. But the same figure, repeated over and over… well, that’s kinda boring. So, who has alternates? I’m looking for simple line drawings (DWG or DXF or some other vector format would be easiest, but GIF/JOG/whatever would be fine too) of human figures that would look good standing next to aircraft, spacecraft, launch vehicles, ordnance, etc. Please feel free to post pics and links on the comments.
With the recent cat illnesses, serious dropoff in business and increase in vet bills, stress levels hereabouts have been at near-historic levels. But hey, at least I haven’t yet contracted a life threatening case of bronchitis in 2014 (that’s me, always looking on the bright side). One of the consequences of stress is a decrease in lesser creativity… I might still be able to creatively think myself out of some emergency situation, but art? Feh. Gone.
Fortunately, things are starting to crawl back towards the normal only-slightly-apocalyptic level of DOOM stress, and creativity is starting to slooowly return. So, some updates: