FedEx begins to annoy me

 AARRRGH, blather, Crazy, dumbassery, Gah., ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Feb 042022
 

So, I had the opportunity to procure a box of vintage diagrams. This is not the sort of thing to be passed up. The shipper wanted me to pay the shipping cost, which is a wholly reasonable position to take; the most convenient shipping service for the sender was FedEx, so I got a FedEx account, created a shipping label through the FedEx website, emailed it as a PDF to the sender, he printed it out, stuck it to the box, dropped it off at FedEx on the 1st. It promptly appeared on the FedEx tracking site. Woo.

Delivery was scheduled for yesterday. It arrived in this state yesterday morning, with delivery scheduled by “end of day.” All plans for the day were put on hold to await the box; I have no desire for this thing to end up in the hands of porch pirates or drowned in rain. So 5 PM rolls around, no package. Perhaps “end of day” meant midnight. Sometime in the evening, the tracking info changed… now, “pending” and “no delivery date scheduled.”

Gah.

So I wake up this AM hoping that things will have changed. Nope. Noon rolls around, no change. So I called FedEx and spoke to a human. And here’s the problem. It got on a truck to be delivered to me, they scanned the label and found that the “to” address is the same as the “from” address on the account, and they got all confused, so they will sit on the package for a few *days* while they print up a new label and then ship it *back.* And since the “from” address is the same as where it was supposed to go in the first friggen’ place, “shipping it back” means sending it to me, where it was supposed to go anyway. Just delayed several days, because reasons.

Fricken’ bureaucrats.

 

 Posted by at 1:18 pm

Crowdfund: Shuttle II stuff

 art, blather, drawings, history, Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon, projects, rockets, sales & specials, ships, spacecraft  No Responses »
Feb 022022
 

So a lot of “Shuttle II” stuff appeared on eBay for an exorbitant price. I’m becoming increasingly leery of plunking down excessive sums for this sort of thing… not only due to my own finances and the onrushing economic meltdown, but because doing so incentivizes sellers to slap even more exorbitant prices on things. But, I put this lot before my APR patrons/subscribers as a potential crowdfunding opportunity, and enough signed on that I went ahead and purchased the lot. It should arrive early next week.

As with all my APR crowdfunds, the cost of the item is split evenly among the funders; the more funders, the lower the price per person. Each funder will receive a complete set of high-rez (300 DPI, full color… higher rez if called for) scans of the items. Typically  these crowdfunded items then get sent on to appropriate archive, library or museum, though this time I’m not quite sure where they should go.

If you would be interested in signing on, send me an email    . There are currently enough funders that the per-funder price is ~$24 under $14; the more sign on, the lower it’ll get. If you have a price limit noticeably lower than $14, let me know in your email. This will remain open until the stuff arrives, presumably early next week. At that point it’ll be closed and the price set.

Additionally: the box shown below, loaded with blueprints/diagrams, is somewhere in the system headed my way. It was procured sight unseen; I have high hopes. This sort of thing is made possible by the APR Patrons/Monthly Historical Documents Program subscribers. If you want to help preserve aerospace history and get in on these goodies, please consider subscribing.

 



 

 Posted by at 5:19 pm

Well, the British courts are about to get interesting

 blather, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., Hmm..., news, politics, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Feb 022022
 

Scot posted ‘only good Brit soldier is a deed one’ and ‘burn auld fella’ after Captain Tom death

In short: A Scottish guy posted nasty opinions after the death of an elderly British solider of some note. This is not news, of course; whenever anyone of *any* note dies, you’re going to have all manner of people loudly posting all manner of classless stuff (example: just imagine what the internet-tubes will be filled with when Hillary! or Gropey Joe or Ted Cruz or Donald Trump keel over). But Britain has decided that saying nasty stuff like “burn in Hell” is now a criminal offense, as the poster has been convicted of posting a “grossly offensive” statement, and will be sentenced in March.

This opens an *astounding* door into legal chaos in Britain. The BBC will now likely take their already shockingly censored reporting of the waves of gang rapes and industrial-scale grooming of British girls by foreign colonizers and probably just not report on it at all, for fear that they will be brought up on charges of offending the criminal class and their enablers. Anyone who says *anything* against race rioters or who complains that British history is being re-written will also likely face legal assault.

It is just barely possible that this legal tactic will be used against  those who would erase the British from British history, but I wouldn’t bet on it. Still, “grossly offensive” is such a wishy-washy foundation upon which to base criminal cases, it’s at least conceivable that those who argue online that such-and-such figure from British history was racists and needs to be canceled, their statues torn down and their name scrubbed off buildings, might find themselves in the dock.

 Posted by at 12:43 pm

Could the Feds get involved?

 AARRRGH, blather, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., Hmm..., I'm from the government, news, politics, Worldwreckers, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jan 272022
 

So, as Los Angeles and other localities allow criminality to skyrocket, new stories get crazier and crazier. Recently it was reported how trains are being robbed in broad daylight, with the thieves turning the region into a third world garbage pit. It got worse: the same spot saw a train derail, possibly because of all the garbage left on the tracks:

Freight train derails in Lincoln Heights

The local and state government have proven wholly unwilling to deal with the issue. But trains are almost definitionally inter-state commerce, so couldn’t the federal government swoop in? Granted, that would require that the FBI be able and willing to do its job, the Justice Department willing to prosecute *actual* criminals, the government as a whole being full of people willing to uphold the Constitution and their oaths of office. So… yeah, maybe not so likely to happen, or at least happen effectively. But at least theoretically, shouldn’t the FBI, ATF, IRS, DOT and just about every other Alphabet Agency be on the job here, ready to swoop in, snatch train robbers, and send them to some FPMITA Prison for a term of decades?

 Posted by at 3:59 pm

And here… we… go.

 AARRRGH, blather, Hmm..., news, politics, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jan 272022
 

So, remember how I was saying “Wu Flu infections are up, but actual deaths are stable, so it seems that things are kinda ok?”

Snerk.

First: Infections. It looks like the latest spike has peaked in the US (though obviously not in the EU).

So, huzzah. The latest version of “worst” is over, right?

Welllll…

 

A fairly straight upwards line for the past three weeks. Neato.

It has also been freakin’ cold in much of the US the last few weeks. Given how enthusiastic the US system is to report any death even remotely related to Pinko Pox as caused by it, it would be interesting – and rational – to try to correlate Commie Cough deaths with flu, pneumonia and other winter maladies. Further interestingness might be had by trying to discern how much of this might be caused by people not turning up their thermostats as high as they might due to the much higher energy costs. I know it’s often pretty frigid in *this* house, because my monthly gas and electric bills have doubled compared to a year ago. Interesting, that.

 Posted by at 10:39 am

Indistinguishable from parody

 AARRRGH, blather, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., Hmm..., news, politics, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jan 172022
 

Sometimes you stumble across a sentiment that could be a lunatic raving, or it could be a parody… and you just can’t tell which. Such as this supposed twitter post from early 2019… the account existed, but has been banned for some reason. There are a number of posts about this tweet, all asking the question: “real or nah?”

And in looking this one up, other “I can’t tell if they’re joking” posts come up. Such as a video showing someone attempting to park and doing it very, very badly. That’s mildly amusing with no further context, but the driver is purported to be Delegate Elanor homes Norton of D.C, nominated by the Biden Administration for a top spot on the House transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

That’s the sort of irony that you gotta scratch your head over. Someone wholly incompetent at basic transportation, being put in charge of transportation? The idea is so ludicrously stupid that it seems not just plausible, but inevitable. Like those goombahs who blather on about how awful guns are and how we should listen to them and do their bidding  about banning guns, when they don’t know the first thing about guns but are happy to stand in front of the press and wave an AK-47 around.

 

 Posted by at 8:49 pm

Well this is just *stupid*

 AARRRGH, B-47 and B-52 Origins and Evolution, blather, Book 3, Book X, books, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird Origins and Evolution, news, politics, wisdom, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jan 162022
 

Here’s your “dumbest news story of the day:”

Waterstones apologises after award-winning author Owusu asked for ID

The short form: an author wanders into a bookstore (“Waterstones”) and asks the staff on hand if he can sign a couple of his books sitting on the shelf. The staff asks him for his ID to make sure it’s actually him. THAT’S IT. That’s the outrage. Waterstones has issued a groveling apology for their staff having the temerity, the gall, the outright *racism* to try to make sure that some rando who wandered in the door isn’t going to just scribble all over some books and ruin them.

As I’m sure I’ve made abundantly clear, I’ve had a book of  mine on the shelves at Barnes & Noble. It was kind of a thrill the first time I saw them sitting there (rather less of a thrill when I saw them still sitting there months later… sigh…). But it did not occur to me to just start scrawling in them. And now that the idea has been brought to my attention, if I *did* decided to enscribble books on a shelf I’d *want* the staff to make sure I am who I say I am.

a spokesperson for Waterstones said: “We are incredulous and dismayed that any bookseller would ask an author for their ID when they have offered to sign their books. Of course, rogue individuals will, from time to time, want to sign books of which they are not the author. Any sensible bookseller can discretely and easily compare the author photo – present on almost every book – and, if there is an obvious mismatch, make a joke of it.”

Make a joke of it? For frak’s sake. Not every author is JK Rowling, with a bagrillion copies of their books on the shelves. Some of us have books printed in numbers that are relatively tiny, and having even a few ruined is kinda painful to contemplate. And no, there are no photos of me in or on “SR-71,” B-47/B-52,” or probably *any* book that may come down the line. Ain’t nobody need to know what I look like (is your life better knowing what Steven King looks like? Does it make the experience of reading “Cujo” better?). But if I go into a place of business to mark up the merchandise, I’d *want* them to check on things like ID.

– – –

Which reminds me. This is hardly the only news story of late regarding morons getting PO’ed about the idea of being asked to show their ID. the current decrepit President of the United States has been telling some whoppers lately to rile up the ignoratti about how terrible it is that they might need to prove that they are who they say they are before they vote:

 Posted by at 6:35 pm

Seditious Conspiracy

 blather, history, Hmm..., news, politics  No Responses »
Jan 152022
 

After more than a year of the Democrats and their media lapdogs shrieking about “insurrection” at the Mostly Peaceful Protest in D.C., *finally* some charges have been filed that, if carried through to conviction, would bear out in at least a handful of cases the Dems claims. But there are numerous issues with the charges, as discussed here:

Seditious Conspiracy: A Look at the New January 6 Oath Keepers Charges

In a way this could be an important historical point, somewhat in the way the Rittenhouse case was. In that case, it was a clear and obvious case of self defense; had the prosecutors convinced the jurors to convict, the entire concept of “self defense” would have potentially been deleted from practical consideration. In this latest set of charges, it appears that the whole case rests on some nuts blathering on in Internet Badass Mode. If convictions are made in this case, then, with  a change in Administrations and priorities, a whole bunch of Lefties who blather on it exactly the same sort of way could find their tweets coming back to haunt them for the next 20 years in FPMITA prison. “First Amendment? Never heard of it.”

Consider:

The words of the seditious conspiracy law – using force to “prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States” or to “seize, take, or possess any property of the United States” – may be broad enough to sweep in certain kinds of civil disobedience, disruptive protests at the Capitol and elsewhere, and plans to resist mass arrests.

Take any property of the United States. Could that be whittled down to “Joe Antifa stole an FBI guy’s jacket, which is property of the United States. Ten years!” I don’t know. But it’s hardly impossible. Could it have applied to the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol and the Supreme Court to prevent the appointment of Justice Kavenaugh? I dunno, but it doesn’t seem impossible. Anyone who blocks access to a military base, or throws rocks at an FBI office, or shrieks at a snowflake government official like AOC could be charged under these rules.

 Posted by at 4:17 pm

B-47/B-52: Signed copies!

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, B-47 and B-52 Origins and Evolution, blather, Book 3, Book X, books, drawings, history, Hmm..., new products, news, projects, rockets, secrets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Jan 142022
 

A few boxes of books finally showed up, shipped from Britain. Not as many as I’d planned on getting; with luck, one or two more boxes are simply working their way through the system slower than the others. UPDATE: the rest showed up. However, I can only make firm plans for the books I actually have on hand.

I plan on selling signed, numbered and dated copies for $55 each plus shipping (cheap in the US, but doubtless ridiculously expensive elsewhere… international postage is nuts these days). To sweeten the deal, these will all come with three 18X24 signed, numbered and dated prints of the B-47 and B-52.

To start off, I will auction off the first five copies. To sweeten *that* deal, numbers 3,4 and 5 will have a fourth 18X24 print… from the currently in-progress Book 3. Numbers 1 and 2 will have an additional 18X24, also from Book 3. The subject of Book 3 has not been made public yet, but I trust that it and the diagrams will be of considerable interest to anyone who has purchased “SR-71” and “B-47/B-52.”

The auction will be simple: send me your bid (in excess of $55) and the highest bid gets #1, second highest gets #2, and so on. Send your bid to scottlowther@up-ship.com before the end of the day Sunday.

After that I will sell off the other signed copies, starting with those who signed up. Hopefully more will arrive by that point, but for right now it looks like There will be a grand total of only 18 23 signed and numbered copies on the entire planet. So… who knows. Collectors items.

 Posted by at 1:57 am

Gene-edited pig heart: get yours now

 awesomeness, blather, critters, Hmm..., news, science, science fiction  No Responses »
Jan 102022
 

First-ever heart transplant from gene-edited pig offers hope for thousands in need of organs

The pig was genegineered to have a heart that would not be rejected by a human immune system, so that human blood would not coagulate within it, and so that the pig would not grow too big (at one year old it was 240 pounds, when otherwise it would have been about 450 pounds).

That’s cool and all, but I imagine that the technique that will eventually win in the future will be hearts (and other organs) cloned from the patient themselves, with whatever genetic modifications to prevent whatever the problem was in the first place. At first that will probably mean organs grown in machines (perhaps even 3D printed), but someday I suspect that your new heart might well be grown in place. Exactly *how* that will happen, I don’t know: maybe the new heart grows next to the old one, starting small and gradually taking it’s place, so for a while you have two beating hearts. Or maybe the new cloned heart will grow *in* the old one… a few scattered new, modified cells seeded throughout the old damaged heart, consuming and replacing the old heart like The Thing, so that it looks like the heart is rapidly repairing itself when in fact it’s being repalced. In the end such a therapy will be of no greater drama than getting a shot of antibiotics today, but the years, perhaps decades, spent perfecting it will doubtless have some exciting failures and screwups.

 Posted by at 10:49 pm
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