Wow, Obama’s stern warning really did the job on Putin…
The Russians have apparently taken the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine. This allows the Russians to control the Straight of Kerch, effectively turning the Sea of Azov into a Russian lake, and cutting half of Ukraines remaining waterfront off from the rest of the world.
Oh, and…
I’m sure this will end well.
More specifically, the Ukrainian airport at Sevastopol has been occupied by Russian military forces.
Yaaaaayyyyy…
Seems to mesh nicely with:
Because if there’s anything bullies and tyrants respect, it’s weakness.
So, a number of years ago I started working on “Nuclear Pulse Propulsion,” which was to be the End All Be All tome on this topic. Sometime into it, someone suggested that I take a page from Tom Clancy and add a little fictional vignette of a few paragraphs to the start of each chapter, to try to bring some aspect of the designs to life. It was a good idea, I thought, so I took a crack at it… and realized with my first attempt that it just wasn’t working. At least, not the way I was going about it. I started writing a yarn featuring the 4,000 ton “space battleship” pitched to the USAF. But several pages in, it became clear that I wasn’t doing well on keeping it to “a few paragraphs.” Also… it was getting fairly dire. Just as there are few stories you can tell about a Ohio-class boomer or a Minuteman III missile silo that feature them doing the jobs they were designed for, there seem few to tell about a spacecraft designed to fight an all-out nuclear war. And while, if written well, it could be an exciting yarn… it ain’t gonna be too damn cheerful, unless global annihilation is something you think is pretty awesome. So… I just sorta gave up on the idea.
In the past week or three I’ve gotten back into working on NPP, and dug up the Orion Battleship tale. And because why not, I’m posting a PDF of it. Keep in mind, this isn’t a polished piece. It’s not even a rough draft; it’s half a rough draft. There is no dialogue, there are no human characters. I had an end in mind, but just never got to it.
So, if’n yer interested in such things, HERE YA GO.
And because I just got the plumbers bill for replacing the pressure tank and suddenly find myself in some need of cash…
Weeeee……. Sounds like all kinds of chaos is breaking out over there in Europe.
So, the winter Olympics are soon to burst forth in the Russian city of Sochi. The press is starting to show up, and is putting the new hotels and other accommodations to the test. And finding that the accommodations FAIL.
I think this sign posted on a restroom stall pretty much sums it up:
Please do not flush toilet paper down the toilet!
Put it in the bin provided
Plus the fake power outlets, the tap water that’s not only unsafe to drink it’s unsafe to *touch,* hotel room doors that lock from the *outside,* manholes in sidewalks missing covers.
At some point you’d have to wonder if perhaps this isn’t so much due to laziness, sloppiness or bad planning, but is actually Putin trolling the world media.
No comment.
Hey… there’s a photo.
You’re welcome.
Claim:
The claim is made that Russia’s Security Council is considering a ban on selling RD-180’s to the US. This would kill the Atlas V, since the US does not have a second source for the engine. Back in the 1990’s there were plans to produce the RD-180 in the US, but the decision was made to simply buy them from Russia.
If this is true and comes to pass, it will be yet another in a long, dreary line of events that point out why international ventures between nations – in particular ventures where each nation produces something vital that the other nation does not – that really don’t like each other is a fundamentally bad idea. It will also point out the importance of having in-house capabilities, such as designing and building rocket engines.
Boeing, I imagine, won’t be too upset by this, as the Delta IV will be happy to pick up the slack from Atlas V. However, that will put US space launch in a bit of a bind, as we’d be restricted to the single heavy launcher. At least unless and until the SpaceX Falcon 9 Heavy becomes available.
Two Tu-22M3 Backfire supersonic bombers and four Su-27 fighters ran exercises in the Baltic near Sweden, practicing attacks on Swedish territory. This caught the Swedes by surprise, who did not respond to the provocation.
Try this one on: some ultra-religious types in Russia are cheesed off about gay marriage in the US, so they’re suing the US to negate the 1867 sale of Alaska in order to protect Christians from Teh Gheys.
Reality is just goofy.
When debating what space tour you will spend your millions on, don’t forget the trip to the Moon offered by Excalibur Almaz. Conveniently located on the Isle of Man, EA apparently already owns four spacecraft (Soviet-era Almaz capsules, to be married to all-new service modules) and two Salyut space station modules.
Beyond your standard hum-drum one-week trip to a low Earth orbit space station, EA is also touting a mission around the moon (though not yet do to a landing on it). According to the Bbc, EA suggests that such a trip would cost £100,000,000.