“Tom Swift”

 AARRRGH, books, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., Meh., politics, science fiction, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
May 112022
 

Before Star Trek, I was a fan of the 1950’s run of “Tom Swift jr.” books back when I was in grade school. Those were some of the first books I read, kicking off a love of science fiction literature that has lasted for more than forty -five years. The whole idea of A Kid Like Me being a scientific/engineering genius appealed, and undoubtedly played some role in my becoming an aerospace engineer. So just imagine how thrilled I was when I saw this trailer for an Extra Special version of Tom Swift soon to premier as a series on the CW:

I *defy* anyone who read the 1950’s run of Tom Swift to suggest with a straight face that this has any resemblance beyond the name and the concept of “genius inventor.”

Is there any intellectual property that modern Hollywood *can’t* or *won’t* turn into crap? The existence of this series does not negate the original books, of course… but the existence of *this* series negates the possibility of the good series that *could* have been made.

 Posted by at 11:21 am

The BBC doesn’t seem to think much of Britain

 books, Crazy, Forward!, history, Hmm..., politics, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
May 072022
 

A literary celebration of Queen Elizabeth II’s record-breaking reign

A “panel of experts” selected 70 books, one for each year of God-Empress Queen Elizabeth II, Defender of the Faith, Monarch of India, Regina Andor Augustus Iaponius Centarius’s reign from 1952 to the present. In all those seventy titles meant to honor the British monarch… there seem to be twelve English authors, two Welsh, four Scottish, one Northern Irish.  Actual Brits  are not considered all that literary-worthy by the BBC. JRR Tolkein’s “The Lord of the Rings” is conspicuous in its absence. The rest is a “Who’s That” list of authors from Sri Lanka and Rwanda and Jamaica, stuff you’ve never read and likely would put down after a page or two to go find something actually interesting to do instead.

And British people *still* have to pay a license to watch the BBC, even though it is freely broadcast through the air.

 Posted by at 1:27 am

Looks like someone didn’t like my book

 aircraft, B-47 and B-52 Origins and Evolution, books, Hmm...  No Responses »
Apr 032022
 

Only six ratings of my book, “Boeing B-47 Stratojet & B-52 Stratofortress: Origins and Evolution” on Amazon. Five of them are five-star… and one is two-star. No actual review, though, to back up that rating. Hmmm. Was that you, Putin?

Boeing B-47 Stratojet & B-52 Stratofortress: Origins and Evolution

 

Why not buy a copy or three and leave a review? Also available directly from the publisher in Britain.

 Posted by at 1:13 pm

B-47/B-52 on Amazon: reviews, please…

 aircraft, B-47 and B-52 Origins and Evolution, books, history, Hmm..., Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird Origins and Evolution  No Responses »
Feb 272022
 

So I’ve gotten word that my book “Boeing B-47 Stratojet & B-52 Stratofortress: Origins and Evolution” has been received by some people who bought it on Amazon. But so far, there has been only a single review posted there. If you purchased a copy from Amazon and have received it, I would appreciate it if you could rate and/or review it.

And if you purchased “Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird: Origins and Evolution,” why not rate and review it as well? I mean, come on… this sample of uranium ore has more than 1,400 reviews.

 Posted by at 9:29 am

The New Book Burners

 AARRRGH, books, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., history, Hmm..., news, politics, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Feb 142022
 

If this was a sane world and this is what it is portrayed as – rather than some TikTokers simply taking the opportunity to gain some clout using books that were being weeded out for normal reasons anyway – these leftist nuts would be:

  1. Arrested for theft and destruction of property
  2. Fined and made to pay not only to replace the books they destroyed, but to buy more from the same authors
  3. Expelled and forbidden from any government scholarships for higher education

And even if these are books that were being discarded for conventional non-political reasons (note that one of the books has a red “DISCARD” stamp on the cover), what we still have here are lunatics who think that making a show out of destroying history books is a good idea. They are normalizing book burning… if it wasn’t already normalized by these walking, talking, semi-sentient meat puppets. Note that at least one of the “colonizer” authors they gleefully three away was a black feller, an expert on the history of slavery.

 Posted by at 7:14 pm

Last Signed B-47/B-52 book

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, B-47 and B-52 Origins and Evolution, books, nukes, projects, sales & specials, secrets, spacecraft, weapons  No Responses »
Feb 082022
 

I have one last copy of B-47 Stratojet and B-52 Stratofortress: Origins and Evolution. It is signed, numbered (#23 of 23) and comes complete with three bonus 18X24 prints, also all singed and numbered. The total *including* shipping  within the US (I shudder to think what shipping overseas would be as the book is honestly fairly massive) is $62. If you would like this copy, the very last of this batch (and there’re no plans for a second batch), send me an email and I’ll send you a paypal invoice. First come, first served…

Update: SOLD.

 Posted by at 10:25 pm

Ironclads: a book idea

 books, history, Hmm..., ships  No Responses »
Feb 052022
 

A book I’ve been looking for for *years* and have come to assume doesn’t actually exist is one that collects diagrams of Civil War era ironclads… diagrams useful for model makers. I’ve seen books with good diagrams of sailing vessels, but it seems like the moment steam engines come into the picture, diagrams dry up. Has there been such a book? Would there be a market for such a book? And is there even adequate documentation to fill out such a book?

Something that collects diagrams of not just the Monitor and the Virginia, but the less well known vessels like the Choctaw, Essex, Keokuk, Lafayette, Mississippi, Albermarle and all the other vessels from that transitional and important era.

 Posted by at 4:30 pm
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