… they still would’ve lost.
Cool, though.
May 252023
May 212023
History is *filled* with astonishingly bad ideas. And who would have guessed that some of the worst would come out of collectivist totalitarian systems like Nazi Germany?
The Case of The Radioactive Toothpaste
Curiously, the toothpaste in question was filled with Radium, the radioactive element of choice for insane and/or stupid product manufacturers in the early 20th century, but Thorium. Why Thorium? Well… “why not” seems to have been the answer.
May 202023
So, what is the current form of American government? To the simple, it’s a democracy. To those who actually have *some* understanding of the theoretical workings of the US Federal government, it’s a representative republic. But to those who have watched how the Feds and a startling number of state and local governments work, a more accurate descriptor is one that most probably haven;t heard of… but rest assured, you *will* be hearing it a lot so long as the means of communications remain reasonably free and accessible:
Anarcho-Tyranny
Coined in 1995, “Anarcho-tryanny” is a form of government that is characterized by taking a hands-off approach to dealing with actual criminality at all levels… but exercising draconian oppression upon the average citizens. Sound familiar? Cities that let criminals loot and burn and protest and terrorize at will… but toss people who defend themselves into the hoosegow for show trials. States that do diddly to deal with gangs and murderers of all stripes, but ban common firearms and standard magazines. Federal law enforcement agencies that welcome in whole armies of invaders, and hire armies of armed bureaucrats to hunt down small business owners who might have made small mistakes on the deviously complex tax returns.
And then there are the “glowies.”
If you, as an average, law-abiding citizen who wants nothing more than to be left alone to live your life and pursue happiness, fear the government descending upon you more than the guy breaking into your car or shoplifting your store does… you may be in an anarcho-tyranny.
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.
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.
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.
May 052023
So, here are a young couple reacting to the movie “Apollo 13.” Nothing particularly noteworthy, except to the likes of me: they didn’t know how it was going to end. The public schools may well teach kids to hate western civ and to think the US was built by slaves and to count an uncountable number of imaginary genders, but actual history? None of that.
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.
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.
Apr 282023
There are several raised rectangular “buttons” on the briefcase computer prop that appear to be simple beveled rectangles of plexiglass, or cast clear plastic. I’m reasonably certain that I’ve seen these on “instrument panel” props before, typically lighted from behind. I don’t know if they are simple bits of plastic or if they were originally push buttons. Here it looks as if they were simply glued on and unlit, but lighting them from behind would seem appropriate.
They can be recreated via CAD and 3D printing easily enough… probably easier still to simply *make* one by hand. But it’d be good to know exactly what they are.
They *kinda* look like the indicator lights on Goldfingers “trick pool table” control panel. Most of these look like simple plexiglas rectangles, but some look like the “laptop” buttons turned upside-down. Shrug.
