Could the Feds get involved?

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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.

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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

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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!

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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

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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

Anti-Bigly

 AARRRGH, blather, Hmm..., politics, Worldwreckers, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jan 082022
 

Regardless of your general opinion of Tucker Carlson, he’s on the money with this monologue about the unfortunate results of the recent explosion in the US population (it has gone up about 65 percent just in my lifetime). The idea of the US reaching a *billion* people, most of whom would almost certainly be third worlders with little interest in truly adopting American ideals, culture, language, etc., is basically horrifying.

And he’s right about where people want to live. As COVID made it sot hat people worked from home, and could thus live wherever the want, people rushed to get away from high population density urban areas and flooded into low population density rural areas. Just a few months before the pandemic hit I did the exact opposite, moving from rural Utah to somewhere far less open and free. Shrug. Had I known then what I know now… dunno. Maybe if I’d waited a couple years I could have sold my place in Utah for a *fortune.*

 

As an aside: in my Zaneverse stories, space operas set about 500 years from now, the three most populace planets in human space are Mars, Atlantis and Asgard. All have a population of about 50 million. All have had that population for a few hundred years, with little prospect of the populations increasing. Because after The Fall and The Bottleneck, humans necessarily got a lot smarter. Mars, completely terraformed at this point, is seen as horribly overpopulated, while Atlantis and Asgard, roughly Earthly and also completely terraformed, are seen as optimally populated. And yet people have *large* families generally. How is this sustained? By people getting the hell out of Dodge as soon as they can. There is a constant urge to get away from massive population centers and head out for the frontier. Of course the frontier is more often than not a new Habitat, a pair of rotating cylinders miles in diameter and more miles long, floating in the asteroid belt of this or that solar system. With good AI, easy nuclear fusion power and propulsion, and five centuries worth of advancement in manufacturing technology, the resources of asteroids and comets means that *billions* of this state-sized habitats can be built, almost free of charge, in any decent solar system.

A new life awaits you in the off-world colonies, a chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure. But this time, without the cynicism.

 Posted by at 2:25 am

James Webb has launched

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Dec 252021
 

The James Webb Space Telescohas successfully launched

There will be no Hubble-like servicing of this when things go wrong. Much of that is due to the fact that it is being launched towards the Earth-Sun L2 LaGrange point, about 1.5 million kilometers away from Earth (further out from the sun). NASA currently has no manned spacecraft that can reach L2. Eventually such spacecraft will become available… modified Dragon capsules, Starship or even the laughably over budget and behind schedule Orion and Starliner capsules should be able to get there. But even when such spacecraft become available, Webb wasn’t designed to be maintained, so when a part breaks and needs replacement it likely won’t actually be replacable. Consequently, much of the mission risk for Webb remains even though the launch was successful.

It will take about a month to reach the L2 point. While l2 is a stable position, it will still require perhaps 4 meters per second of station keeping per year. Total delta V budget is 150 meter per second, so if all goes well lifespan could still be as short as  37.5 years. Development began in 1996, with an initially planed launch of 2007, so it took a quarter century to actually design, build and launch; any conceivable improvement/replacement using the same bureaucracy could *easily* take far longer than Webb’s actual lifespan. There is cause to hope that if Starship is successful that the whole paradigm that resulted in Webb taking 14 or so extra years could be replaced by a much more rational world of spacecraft development. If it really does become possible to launch large and heavy spacecraft quickly and orders of magnitude more cheaply, then it will be possible to design and build spacecraft more capable than Webb, much cheaper than Webb, because they won’t need to shave off every last milligram like Webb.

 Posted by at 8:17 am

Argh

 AARRRGH, aircraft, art, B-47 and B-52 Origins and Evolution, blather, Book 3, books, drawings, Gah., Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird Origins and Evolution, Monthly Historical Documents Program, projects, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Dec 232021
 

I’m working on CAD diagrams for Book 3. As with the prior two books, this will be largely filled with diagrams of unbuilt aircraft, but also will have diagrams of real, flown aircraft. The diagrams of “real” aircraft take far longer than those of “project” aircraft for a few simple reasons: “real” aircraft have a lot more information, and a lot more accessible detail… and “real” aircraft are subject to critique by others to a higher degree than “project” aircraft. Couple that with an urge to craftsmanship, and “real” aircraft can be a real chore to diagram.

So the aircraft I’m working on now is pretty well known. Unfortunately, “well known” does not always (or even often) result in “well described and illustrated with official, large, high rez, precise and accurate diagrams” from which to work. I’m trying to reconcile official diagrams taken from blueprints and technical manuals, and it’s a massive pain in my keister: a diagram that at first seemed spectacular – showing the structural frames *and* their fuselage stations – turns out to be a mess, because the fuselage stations aren’t anything like to scale. None of the diagrams agree with each other or photos of the aircraft as far as the exact shape of the canopy. Gah.

So I hope y’all appreciate what I have to go through…

Buy my books!

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird – Origins & Evolution.

B-47 Stratojet and B-52 Stratofortress: Origins and Evolution.

Subscribe to the Monthly Historical Documents Program!

 Posted by at 7:38 pm
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