Yeah, that’s contaminated

 AARRRGH, Crazy, Gah., Hmm..., news, politics, science, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Feb 162023
 

The train crash in East Palestine Ohio was a toxic mess. Those claiming that everything is just fine now seem to not be entirely accurate in their assessments.

A lot of people are trying to shift blame, including (of course) blaming Trump because he cancelled regulations about adding electronic braking to trains carrying certain dangerous payloads. It’s not at all clear that that would have made the slightest difference here. Especially when you look at the video below: those tracks are so screwed up that I don’t imagine any brakes in the universe would have prevented derailing if the train went too fast. These are just awful. However, I believe the video is fairly old and from a minor rail line; it’s doubtful that a *major* rail line that would carry dangerous chemicals in large quantities would even try to run on rails like this. Nevertheless… yow.

 

 Posted by at 5:11 pm

A Satisfying Debunking

 Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., history, Hmm..., news, politics, science, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Feb 162023
 

Debunkings can be fun, once you get past the headache and heartache of having to debunk nonsense in the first place. Penn & Tellers “BS” is sadly missed here, but this video might help tide you over a bit. It has become politically fashionable in recent years to erase the actual inventors of numerous objects and ideas and replace them with people more politically expedient and useful, despite the fact that their roles in the inventions are often minimal, or misunderstood, or simply nonexistent.

The woman responsible for the original video claims to be a historian, or at least getting schooled in history. Yet her “history” is filled not just with factual inaccuracies, but easily fixable factual inaccuracies. She was either lazy or, as I think more likely, willing to dupe herself to reach a desired conclusion. Neither is a good look for a “historian.”

 

I have a particular hatred for re-writing the history of science. Science is a process; it is probably mankinds greatest invention. It has allowed us to rise up out of the muck and we’re now on the precipice of launching ourselves out into space. This will be the greatest moment in human history. But science cannot function if you are so readily willing to lie about it. If verifiable objective facts can be swept under the rug in favor of a preferred outcome, science collapses. Women like this would, given their druthers, bring about a new dark age.

 Posted by at 1:04 pm

Less than a day left: Selling cyanotype blueprints on ebay…

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, cyanotype blueprints, drawings, history, news, nukes, projects, rockets, ships, spacecraft  No Responses »
Feb 152023
 

I’m selling the blueprints I’ve recently made. I can sign ’em if the buyer wants, front or back…

Saturn Ib Inboard Profile Cyanotype Blueprint

NERVA nuclear rocket engine Cyanotype Blueprint

NERVA nuclear rocket engine artwork Cyanotype Blueprint

Boeing 2707-200 SST Cyanotype Blueprint

Trident II SLBM Cyanotype Blueprint

Northrop B-2A stealth bomber Cyanotype Blueprint

Saturn V Inboard Profile Cyanotype Blueprint

Skylab Cutaway Cyanotype Blueprint

A-4 (V-2) German Rocket Layout & Engine Cyanotype Blueprints

A-4 (V-2) German Rocket Isometric Cutaway Cyanotype Blueprint

A-4 (V-2) German Rocket Isometric Cutaway Cyanotype Blueprint: Smaller

Wasserfall German WWII Surface to air missile Cyanotype Bluepri

 

USS Monitor Ironclad Cyanotype Blueprint

550 Central Park West Cyanotype Blueprint

Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) Cyanotype Blueprint

X-20 Dyna Soar/Titan IIIC Cyanotype Blueprint

Early X-20 Dyna Soar Cyanotype Blueprint

Large X-20 Dyna Soar 2050E Cyanotype Blueprint

 

 

 

 Posted by at 4:05 pm

I think I know what they shot down…

 AARRRGH, aircraft, Crazy, dumbassery, Gah., Hmm..., I'm from the government, Meh., news, politics, weapons, Worldwreckers, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Feb 132023
 

You can listen to the audio of the Lake Huron shootdown in the video below, via The Drive:

 

 

It’s small (the size of a “four wheeler,” probably meaning an ATV), it’s dark metallic and gives a good sun glint, has strings dangling from it, looks like a “container.”

Hmmm.

 

 

 

The government might not be protecting us for Chinese spying, and certainly isn’t protecting us from what might be an industrial/environmental disaster on the scale of Chernobyl, but hey, they’re lashing out at party balloons like there’s no tomorrow.

 

Pay no attention to the massive chemical release behind the curtain:

 

 Posted by at 11:51 pm

And the balloonageddon continues

 aircraft, blather, Crazy, Hmm..., news, politics, rockets, weapons, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Feb 122023
 

US Shuts Airspace Over Lake Michigan, Cites “National Defense”

 

Seems the balloons are coming pretty fast.

 

 

 

Clearly if the Commies are swarming our skies with balloons, they need to be shot down. But while balloons are cheap, AIM-9X missiles are expensive as are F-15 and especially F-22 sorties. Reserving air supremacy fighters for swatting balloons over Canada or Montana means they can’t be deployed elsewhere for roles more requiring their capabilities. The ability to take out balloons *cheaply* is needed. A suggestion: instead of expendable missiles launched from advanced fighters, how about reusable missiles launched from cargo jets, or modified corporate jets? Missiles such as AQM-37C. This missile was a target, and some variants were fitted with a parachute recovery system. The AQM-37C was capable of Mach 4 flight up to 100,000 feet. The AQM-37 series is now long out of production and no longer in service, but the design has worked for fifty years and could be certainly updated. It could be rebuilt for precision command guidance or some onboard guidance; it could be meant to simply dart through the balloons envelope, or blast over it real close while spewing out small submunitions. Build them in vast numbers for economies of scale; build variants for other roles such as surface attack, recon, whatever, to spread the cost and utility around. If you’re *real* good, build them for in-flight snatching; if you are *extremely* good, build them to be snatched by the launch aircraft.

 

 

 

 

 

 Posted by at 6:17 pm

Impactor incoming?

 awesomeness, Hmm..., news, science  No Responses »
Feb 122023
 

I don’t know how reliable this is, but if it’s accurate… yee haw. 2023 is just the year that keeps on giving. A small asteroid 9~1 meter) is aimed at the south side of the English channel, impacting 03:00:03 UT tomorrow. Probably won;t make it to the water as a single object, but most likely will kerplode at altitude.

 

 

 Posted by at 5:58 pm

The Balloon Wars Have Begun

 aircraft, Hmm..., news, politics  No Responses »
Feb 112023
 

US jet shoots down ‘unidentified object’ over northern Canada, Trudeau says

A “high altitude airborne object” shot down by an F-22. This seems like chump work for the F-22, when the F-15 seems perfectly capable of it. it also seems like a dandy way for China and/or Russia to soak up American air defense resources, dollars and time.

 

But hey, at least Pfizer/Biden/whatever might be off the news cycle hook for a bit.

 Posted by at 11:06 pm

Wow. Russian equipment seems… ummm…

 AARRRGH, Crazy, dumbassery, Gah., news, rockets, russian empire, spacecraft, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Feb 112023
 

Ummm…

 

Another Russian spacecraft docked to the space station is leaking

 

a Progress supply ship attached to the International Space Station has lost pressure in its external cooling system

 

C’mon, Russia. You used to be cool. For a time. A brief window. Back when the worst thing about y’all were your wacky likkered-up drivers on the ice.

 

 Posted by at 8:27 pm

Fossil mud ripples on Mars

 awesomeness, Hmm..., news, photography, science  No Responses »
Feb 112023
 

Hard to argue that this is anything but clear evidence that Mars was once a wet planet.

NASA’s Curiosity Finds Surprise Clues to Mars’ Watery Past

 

It’s the sort of terrain where, on Earth, I’d not be surprised to see a fossil shell or footprint. That’s doubtless too much to ask *here,* but the evidence of water just sitting there like that is pretty spectacular.

 

 

Feel free to try to imagine “other ways of knowing” providing this.

 

 Posted by at 6:21 pm

What an utterly surprising development

 AARRRGH, aircraft, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, news, politics, weapons, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Feb 102023
 

Fetterman hears voices like the teachers in ‘Peanuts’ after stroke, struggles to adjust to Senate life: report

I’m shocked.

 

Also, he went into the hospital Wednesday sue to light-headedness. There was some early speculation that it was another stroke, but apparently it wasn’t. It’s being downplayed… but as I understand it he’s *still* hospitalized. For light-headedness. Everything is fine. Nothing to worry about.

 

I can’t imagine why America’s opponents are seeing us as weak and ineffectual these days. Regarding which:

US military shoots down ‘object’ flying in territorial waters over Alaska

Another balloon. It’s reportedly smaller than the Chinese spy balloon (with a “car-sized” payload), was flying at about 40,000 feet, and it took an F-22 and an AIM-9X to bring it down. Wreckage crashed onto ice and has been recovered.

 Posted by at 8:13 pm
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