Nope. Not AT ALL creepifyin’

 AARRRGH, art, awesomeness, Crazy, Gah., Hmm..., news, science  No Responses »
Aug 232022
 

What does a black hole sound like? I suspect Lovecraft would have recognized it…

 

 

 Posted by at 12:46 am

Tolkein rights: oh, boy! Chaos!

 art, Hmm..., news  No Responses »
Aug 192022
 

Swedish entertainment company buys rights to ‘Lord of the Rings’ films and other Tolkien intellectual property

The deal gives Embracer the rights to “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” film trilogies and any Tolkien-related movies, video games, board games, merchandising, theme parks and stage productions.

Article doesn’t make it clear how this interacts with Amazon’s billion-dollar forthcoming fan-film series. It *seems* like they’ve got the rights to the same thing Amazon has the rights to, so when Amazon’s little project turns out to be terrible, in theory this new company could come along and make a series set in exactly the same time frame and region, but do it properly and completely erase “Rings of Power.” Not that they necessarily will, mind you… but if “Rings of Power” turns into a complete disaster (as all evidence to date suggests rather strongly), that’ll be incentive to not screw with the lore and insult the fanbase. Being a Swedish company, one cautiously wonders if any future enterprise might cast Scandinavians as elves, as would seem utterly appropriate.

 Posted by at 12:16 am

Me 163 with a jet engine

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, history, models, youtube  No Responses »
Aug 182022
 

Sure, it’s only 1/3 scale, but it’s still quite impressive. The inlets for the jet engine are relatively well hidden… NACA-style flush inlets below the wing roots. It can be yours for the low, low, incredibly low price of only € 2.995 9not counting the jet engine). And when you crash it on your first flight… well, you’ll have that authentic “aww, scheisse” experience the Luftwaffe so often enjoyed.

 

 

 Posted by at 5:53 am

Sometimes the kids get it

 art, awesomeness, history, youtube  No Responses »
Aug 162022
 

The video quality is terribly potato, but the reactions are remarkably spot-on. I’ve watched these two from time to time and their reactions to things can be hit or miss (they just didn’t *get* “Airplane”), but their response to “Field of Dreams” is precisely as it aught to be. It’s aided by the fact that they went into this apparently cold, having no knowledge of the movie.

This was a remarkable movie. “Is this Heaven? No, it’s Iowa” was all over the place back in the day… of course, I lived right next to Iowa when this came out and soon enough spent four years getting edumacated there.

 

 

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Field+of+Dreams+Movie+Site/@42.498182,-91.0547428,301m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x87e34d88d2d4f709:0xc7f292cb89e201ed!8m2!3d42.4976182!4d-91.0542824

 

 Posted by at 12:43 am

Restoring lucite?

 art, history, Hmm..., rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Aug 072022
 

Ebay has recently suggested to me a few Apollo era knickknacks it thinks I need… chunks of Apollo capsule heat shield cast in Lucite. I guess they’re cool and all, and of historical interest, but somewhat outside of my wheelhouse (and finances). Still, looking at them got me thinking.

The Lucite seems to have yellowed with age. Some of this might be cigarette smoke, thus able to be cleaned off. Some might be UV damage to the outer surface, possibly fixable via “retro-bright” process or some similar. But it kinda looks like the Lucite has yellowed or darkened all the way through. If so, if there any possible way to clear that up? Blast it with UV? Gamma rays? Lasers? Boil it? Some sort of solvent to melt the Lucite away, then cast it again in a more modern transparent material that will hold up to time better? Given the prices being asked for these things, the correct answer is doubtless “leave it the frak alone,” but I wonder nonetheless.

Some current examples:

Apollo 8 Heat Shield Segment from the Command Module

Vintage NASA Apollo X heat Shield Lucita 1969

Vintage NASA Apollo 8 Heat Shield Segment from the Command Module 1968

Apollo 7 Piece of Heat Shield from the Command Module

Apollo 9 Flown Ablator Piece in Lucite

 

 Posted by at 6:45 pm
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