“Squadron Shop” *was* one of the biggest retailers (mail order) of model kits, for more than 50 years. They are apparently no more.
https://www.facebook.com/111310803863763/videos/243100640551113
Jan 262021
Jan 262021
I’ve found that archives going from pure-paper to digital to be as much a curse as a blessing. Sure, the stuff that gets scanned and placed into publicly accessible archives? Great. But… often enough, archives that scan their stuff often decide that once the original is digitized they have no further use for the original… and it gets thrown away or outright destroyed. that wouldn’t be *too* bad if the scans were good. but too often they’re not. All too often the scans are *crap.* For example, some years back NASA scanned in the files of a deceased engineer. *Lots* of great stuff was scanned and made available. A lot of what the guy had were large format diagrams of hypersonic aircraft… X-24C derivatives, hypersonic research aircraft, HSTs, that sort of thing. What actually got scanned: just the data block. The on-hand scanner was good for letter size, so rather than going to the bother of scanning the large format sheet in chunks, or taking it somewhere than had a large format scanner, whoever did the scanning just scanned, essentially, the title of the thing. And then what? NASA destroyed the originals. You can see the titles, you can see perhaps a piece of a tail or a wingtip… and in all probability that’s all you will *ever* see, because they just couldn’t be bothered.
Recently the “AF FOIA Reading Room” appeared. I’ve found a *few* things of interest on it, one being a summary of the F-108 and B-70 programs. It’s reasonably well illustrated, which is a bonus. Should be great, right? Prepare to be disappointed. Here is the quality of the digitized document… 2-bit black and white at low resolution:
That’s friggen’ craptacular. 2-bit is always the mark of not-giving-a-damn, but to do that with old, clearly time-darkened paper is a crime against humanity. The only way to hope to make anything halfway decent from it is to go through it and manually clean it up. The secondary approach of letting the computer try gives results that are just plain disappointing:
It is *somewhat* clearer. But a whole lot of data is simply lost and unrecoverable, even with manual, skilled and talented cleanup. The “Enhance” button only does so much.
So if *you* have interesting aerospace diagrams and documents, *please* don’t do this. The minimum for text and diagrams is 300 dpi, grayscale, saved in a lossless format such as PNG or TIF. If the diagrams are the slightest bit faded, or if there is anything remotely colorful, scan in full color. Photos and art… full color and consider scanning at 600 or even 1200 dpi. Sure, the file sizes are way bigger. But storage space is vastly cheaper and more abundant than it was just a few years ago. And there are people, AHEM, who will scan this sort of thing for you, just to make sure it’s preserved.
Jan 232021
Yup. That’s a *spectacular* sign. Just shove something in front of him, he’ll sign it. But it opens some possibilities. Perhaps someone could slip in a confession or three? Or an executive order disbanding the BATFE, transfering all their funds to Space Force?
Jan 232021
“I Think My Gmail Has Crashed”: The Teacher Who Made Bernie Sanders’ Mittens on Watching Them Go Viral
So back in 2016 a fan of Bernie Sanders gave him a gift of hand-made mittens. During the recent inauguration, Sanders was photographed wearing said mittens, and because why not, the photo went viral. Slate hunted down the maker of the mittens, who remains a fan of Sanders. Where’s the irony? Well… the mittens-maker *used* to have a business making mittens, but no more. Why?
People have been contacting me thinking that they can get mittens, and actually they can’t. I don’t have any more, and I don’t have much of a mitten business anymore because it really wasn’t worth it. Independent crafters get really taken for a ride by the federal government. We get taxed to the nth degree, and it wasn’t really worth it pursuing that as a business, even as a side hustle.
Huh. You complain about taxes being so high as to crush your business. Sure, I’m right there with you. Buuuuuuuuutttttttt……. you remain a supporter of Bernie Sanders, a socialist?
Further evidence that what the United States needs is NOT to expand the voting franchise, but to institute some basic civics tests before your vote is allowed to count.
Jan 222021
Second from left, in a photo from 2014, is U.S. Department of State Spokesperson Jennifer Psaki. She is now President Baizuo’s spokespuppet.
The story was that it was a gift from some Russian officials. Uh-huh. If some German officials showed up with a hat with a swastika on it, or some Japanese officials gave her a hat with the rising sun w/rays on it, or, heck, some Southern officials gave her a hat with a CSA “battle flag,” would she proudly wear that too?
I guess it’s good that these people are open about their views. What’s bad is that their views are so fundamentally anti-American.
Jan 222021
Frak’s sake. 2021 already blows.
RIP Mira Furlan, the Heart of Babylon 5
It is a night of great sadness, for our friend and comrade had gone down the road where we cannot reach her. But as with all things, we will catch up with her in time, and I believe she will have many stories to tell us, and many new roles to share with the universe. pic.twitter.com/HyQlqyC19v
— J. Michael Straczynski (@straczynski) January 22, 2021
Jan 222021
With all the burning last year, I missed this story. The next time you hear or read on one of those Antifa goons torching a place, and some oxygen thief defends their actions because “arson isn’t violence” or “it’s just stuff” or some such vacuous drivel, hit them with this story:
Fundraiser for beekeeper raises £24,000 after his life’s work was destroyed by arsonists
Now, the defender-of-arson will likely point out “but there was a funding effort and he got a lot of money” or “he probably had insurance” or some such nonsense. Never mind the emotional distress of having *your* *stuff* destroyed, there is also this:
Ron had spent 20 years breeding a super-bee that was able to survive attacks from a killer mite that destroyed millions of bees across the world.
The arsonists didn’t just take away a hobby or a source of income… they endangered the very existence of bees. And without bees, a lot of other species will suffer -including humans – due to bees being important pollinators. The arsonists can fairly be faulted for a mass attack on the environment, attempted (perhaps eventually successful) extermination of whole species, and genocide against large swaths of mankind.
No fundamental difference between these arsonists and those who burned Uncle Hugo’s science fiction bookstore… or anywhere else. That’s why I stand foursquare with those calling for the identification, arrest and charging with insurrection/domestic terrorism all those who set fires within the Capitol building earlier this month.
Jan 212021
‘We feel incredibly betrayed’: Thousands of Guardsmen forced to vacate Capitol
It’s an interesting read. More than 20,000 Guardsmen were uselessly sent to protect the Capital from phantom insurgents; they were meant to play guards, but were unarmed, vetted, insulted and name-called by their political masters… then once their utility in an episode of political theater was over, they were sent to be packed neck-deep in a parking garage with vastly insufficient facilities.
Good job.
Jan 202021
So majestic. So regal. So many feels.
To protect Biden? Bring Out The Army. To protect cities when they were being burned by thousands of armed insurrectionists and domestic terrorists all through the incessant Moron Riots of 2020? Naw, let it burn.
Jan 202021
As is known far and wide, I’m not well known. What little fame I have is largely bound up is the aerospace history research and illustration I’ve done; I’m *hoping* that when the two books I’m working on now get published things will change a bit (well, I hope my *work* gains a bit of fame; I’ve little use for *me* becoming famous). Still: while I toil in obscurity, I find that the products of my labor do have a tendency to pop up here and there. Usually when the diagrams I’ve created are used by someone else there’s some sort of attribution… but not always. There’s little to nothing that can be done about that, of course. Just sorta grit my teeth and move on.
So I watched this video, gritted my teeth and will, I suppose, move on. Note that it uses diagrams I created for Aerospace Projects Review issue V1N3 and US Transport Projects #07. What I suppose was funny was that when I started watching the video I largely *expected* to see my diagrams to show up in it… and, yup, there they are. As of this writing, the video has had about half a million views, not a one of which read where the diagrams came from.
UPDATE: After comms with the video maker: it seems he received the diagrams from someone else claiming them as their own. There have been revisions to the description including proper attribution. If this all pans out, there may be collaborations in the future.
