“2001 Briefcase Computer” updates

 art, awesomeness, history, Hmm..., science, science fiction  No Responses »
May 162023
 

1: A Remington Rand Printing Calculator showed up today. I need it solely for the number keys. Damn thing weighs a ton. Not sure what I’ll do with it after… It’s not something I have a particular use for, nor am I likely going to be able to restore it properly.

 

 

 

2: I’ve figured out the “video camera:” it’s a Japanese “Monolux” telescope with a box wrapped around it. Some comparison shots  between the prop and two copies of the scope I found on ebay:

The size is about right, the shape is dead on, the details are right, the colors are, within limits, correct. The “box” might have been an actual product, but it’s simple enough, and the seams look crappy enough, that making it from scratch seems fully warranted.

 Posted by at 11:00 pm

Golden Oldies

 art, awesomeness, Crazy, Forward!, Hmm..., humor, news, politics, russian empire, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
May 162023
 

A song from five years ago is now made relevant again by this news about the “Trump-Russia Collusion” narrative falling apart even more:

Special counsel John Durham concludes FBI never should have launched full Trump-Russia probe

As the kids say, it’s a “banger.”

 

It was produced by the same folks responsible for the Alex Jones “Gay Frogs” remix:

 

 

 

 Posted by at 4:58 am

Nuclear Rockets

 awesomeness, history, Hmm..., nukes, photography, science, weapons, youtube  No Responses »
May 102023
 

Back in the Good Old Days of above-ground nuclear testing, a series of solid propellant smokey-trailed rockets would be launched just before detonation. They would leave vertical trails in the sky near the detonation. The video below explains just what they were for, as well as some of the physics of the detonation itself… the radiation front and the shock front. It’s interesting.

 Posted by at 9:46 pm

A light on the horizon

 awesomeness, blather, Hmm..., news, politics, weapons  No Responses »
May 102023
 

A new Supreme Court case seeks to legalize assault weapons in all 50 states

The Supreme Court could hand down a decision any day now in National Association for Gun Rights v. City of Naperville, a case that could legalize assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in all 50 states.

“Assault weapons:” Normal semi-automatic rifles

“High-capacity magazines:” the standard capacity magazines that come with the gun

Most of the article, apart form the above bit of Scare Text, is pretty straightforward. However, there’s this bizarre bit:

And there is good reason to fear that this Court could, at the very least, decide to make semiautomatic assault rifles legal throughout the United States.

“Fear:” a funny way to spell “hope.”

Anyway, “National Association for Gun Rights v. City of Naperville” is on the Supreme Court “Shadow Docket,” which means they could issue a ruling without the usual trouble of oral hearings. This would speed things up a *lot.*

The concept of a Shadow Docket is a bit strange, and one I’m not entirely sure I’m entirely behind. However, I would accept any Shadow Docket ruling *IF* that ruling came down in favor of rolling back government power, impositions on the citizens or curtailments of rights. If s Shadow Docket ruling was in favor of the government, then it should automatically be set aside in favor of a full court proceedings.

 Posted by at 1:22 pm

“Journey to the Stars”

 art, awesomeness, history, Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon, projects, rockets, science, science fiction, spacecraft  No Responses »
May 062023
 

In 1983 “Science Digest” ran an article that 13-year-old me lost his tiny little mind over. Illustrated by Rick Sternbach, designer of, among other Star Trek vehicles and artifacts, the USS Voyager, it described a series of possible means of interstellar travel. While the physics and engineering of some of them have proven dodgy in the years since (the Bussard ramjet has serious problems with the proposed magnetic fiend, the Enzmann starship has turned out to not be as well thought out as many had assumed, etc.), it remains a tantalizing glimpse of what might be. The article has been scanned in full color and made available to APR Patrons/subscribers at the above-$10 level.

 

If you would like to help fund the acquisition and preservation of such things, along with getting high quality scans for yourself, please consider signing on either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program. Back issues are available for purchase by patrons and subscribers.



 

 

 

 

 

 Posted by at 11:29 am

April 2023 APR Rewards

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, drawings, history, Monthly Historical Documents Program, new products, Patreon, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
May 012023
 

The rewards for April, 2023, have been released. They include:

Document: *Partial* Martin report on the M329 Mach 2 jet seaplane bomber

Document: “Flexible Wing Manned Test Vehicle, Final Program Report,” Ryan, December 1961. report on the development of the “Rogallo Wing” test vehicle.

Document: “10 Jahre TKF/J-90 Vorentwicklung,” conference paper from 1983 from Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm Gmbh describing (in German) the development of advanced fighter jets

Large Format: “NASA’s Space Launch System,” poster with detailed diagrams of the Block 1 and Block 1B SLS

CAD Diagram: B-1B weapons loads. This diagram was created and intended for my “US Supersonic Bomber Projects Volume 1” but had to be cut for space reasons. This includes gravity bombers, cruise missile sand the Vought T-22 “Assault Breaker.”

 

 

If you would like to help fund the acquisition and preservation of such things, along with getting high quality scans for yourself, please consider signing on either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program. Back issues are available for purchase by patrons and subscribers.



 

 Posted by at 2:13 pm

This seems expensive

 art, awesomeness, Hmm..., models, science, youtube  No Responses »
Apr 292023
 

Adam Savage has a bunch of old (decades) silicone molds sitting doing nothing. Silicone, sadly, degrades not just from use, but over time; a mold that is years old will almost certainly fall into ruin if you try to cast a part using it. So, if you have an old mold that you want to get parts out of, what to do? Well, if you are well connected you get someone to CAT scan the mold, create an STL model of the mold, convert the hollow space within into a solid model, then 3D print. Easy! Anybody can do it! But here’s the thing: each scan the CAT scanner makes takes 30 seconds… and each mold could take 1500 scans to complete. So… twelve and a half solid hours on a CAT scanner.

Huh.

 

 Posted by at 10:21 pm

“2001” Laptop: TLAR 2

 art, awesomeness, blather, history, science fiction  No Responses »
Apr 282023
 

The tripod showed up. I do believe it is correct. Compare to the original prop. Here it’s fairly well hidden by the video camera, but the size seems about right in the case:

 

 

When extended one leg-segment, the top of both the prop tripod and the one on hand are right at the top of the opened briefcase lid.

 

 

Until I either find out what some of the remaining items are (the rectangular “buttons,” the TV screen, speaker cover, “light pen,” knurled knobs), this seems to exhaust my search for and procurement of vintage artifacts. However, the project proceeds. As can be seen, I’ve mostly removed the interior fabric liner and its card backing; that was some tough stuff. The boxes for the keyboard and the numeric/math board will be fabricated; this can be done pretty accurately given that I have the keys and fairly clear photos. The long space bar is going to be a challenge… the typewriter I have has one, and it’s in great shape… but removing it requires undoing some screws that I just can’t reach without an extensive disassembly of the typewriter. Instead, I think I can *just* manage to make a silicone mold of it in place and cast a copy right there.

Note also in the color photo of the prop: the keyboard is off-kilter. It looks like the bits and pieces were just placed into the case and not fixed down in any fashion. My replica will be different: the boxes and the phone will be designed to attach to a fiberglass board that fills the back of the case. There will also be something to attach the camera and the tripod to keep them from flopping around inside the case. Also note… there are no wires connecting the TV screen and memory components in the lid to the keyboard, phone and camera in the base. I suspect this was just a way to keep things neater for the prop (or even an oversight), but I would not put it past the prop people, or even Kubrick, to have made the decision to not have wires. Instead there might have been microwave, laser or radio links between the components. More complex, and needlessly so… but this was a world in which businessmen went to space stations to buy bush babies over the videophone and signed contracts on the moon with atomic-powered pens. So a laptop where the top and bottom communicated via Wifi rather than wires does not seem out of place.

 Posted by at 11:25 pm
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