The most useless machine in the universe. So far.

 art, Hmm..., science, youtube  No Responses »
Nov 022022
 

A gearbox with a gear ratio of ten to the power of 169. The last gear will *never* turn once; it’s unlikely to turn even a detectable amount. Not just because there are probably no plans to hook the *first* gear up to a perpetual motion machine, but the fact that mo matter how fast it’s spun, that last gear will succumb to proton decay before it could turn the least bit. never mind the fact that it’s made of plastic and will crumble to dust in less than geological timescales.

Someone will doubtless improve upon this.

 Posted by at 1:13 am

Offensive humor

 AARRRGH, blather, dumbassery, Forward!, humor, politics, science, wisdom, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Nov 012022
 

This guy tells a joke, the short from of which is that learning about science in school is useless, because he didn’t become a scientist. Now it could well be that he doesn’t actually believe that; perhaps a longer video with more context has him redeem himself later. But the basic notion expressed here grates on me more than a lame joke by an unknown standup comic really aught to. It would be better by far for kids to learn about science and math and then have them not go into STEM fields, than to replace science and math with the latest trendy identity politics subjects. Because even if the kids *do* go into the fields of gender studies or LGBTQ studies or racial grievance activism… society is *worse* off. Learning math helps a kid order their mind. Learning science helps a kid learn skepticism. Learning critical race theory helps a kid become a racist monster. Learning about the latest innovation in pronoun-invention helps a kid become schizophrenic and sterile.

 Posted by at 8:20 am

Didn’t quite stick the landing

 AARRRGH, aircraft, news, politics, russian empire, weapons, youtube  No Responses »
Nov 012022
 

A Mil-8 got thwacked by a MANPAD and set alight. It flew in a controlled and sensible manner for a lot longer than I would have expected given that it seemed to be a raging inferno, but the end was kind of a bummer for the crew. I suspect the passengers were already out of the picture by that point. Gotta wonder why the pilot kept it in the air that long. I would have thought “Ground. Now.” would have been the overriding priority.

 

 Posted by at 2:00 am

Orion Battleship

 APR, awesomeness, history, Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, nukes, projects, rockets, science fiction, spacecraft, weapons, youtube  No Responses »
Oct 302022
 

The YouTube channel “Found and Explained” just released a video on the 4,000 ton Orion Battleship, with the model used based on my reconstruction from issue V2N2 of “Aerospace Projects Review.” The video was sponsored by a “Star Trek” video game, so there are a *lot* of Star Trek references in the video.

For more information on the project, including blueprints, be sure to check out issue v2N2.

 Posted by at 6:21 pm

This is *spectacular*

 art, awesomeness, science fiction, spacecraft, youtube  No Responses »
Oct 292022
 

YouTube is filled to overflowing with “fan edits” of this or that movie, or fan-made videos showing spaceships from Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Battlestar Gallactica, etc. The quality of these vary greatly. Lots are *terrible.* But every now and then, you get THIS:

It’s a reworking of the “launch” scene from Star Trek VI. The original was fine, but this is *way* better. And note that the artist didn’t decide to redesign the Enterprise or Spacedock; he respected the canon.

 Posted by at 3:19 am

This one’s rough

 AARRRGH, Crazy, news, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Oct 262022
 

There’s lots of awful in this story. One aspect of awful: a man hunting mushrooms stumbled across a suitcase and found a dead five-year-old in it. That’s gotta leave a mark.

“Lil feller.” This guy, a pretty good replica of Wilford Brimley, seems like a good man.

The kid was killed by his mother who believed him to be a demon. We *really* need to start mass producing loony bins and crazy buckets.

 Posted by at 11:11 pm
 Older Entries  Newer Entries