Celebrities in quarantine

 AARRRGH, Crazy, Meh., news, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Apr 132020
 

It seems that living lives of being the center of attention really does drive people insane. At the very least, it looks like many of them become addicted to constant attention, and when they can’t get it, they go bugnuts. Gentlemen, behold:

Celebrities Are Coming Unhinged During Quarantine, and I’ve Never Felt More Seen

Fame. It’s a hell of a drug.

I’ve never understood the need some people seem to have to be the center of attention. Not a need I have in great abundance; hell, the whole point behind starting this blog a dozen years ago wasn’t to go “lookit me!” but more “buy my stuff!” and that, along with being a simple way to bitch about things and serve as a crude diary just about covers it. So far as I’m aware I’ve never posted anything that should give a clear idea of what I even look like, because y’all don’t need to know what I look like and I have no burning desire that y’all know what I look like. So  all these overpaid weirdos making fools of themselves because they’re sad that they can’t go out in front of an audience? No sympathies.

 Posted by at 6:37 am

More Bad News For Boeing

 AARRRGH, Gah., Hmm..., news, projects, rockets, spacecraft, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Apr 122020
 

NASA does not seem to have thought highly of the Boeing proposal for the Lunar Gateway…

 

Source Selection Statement for the Gateway Logistics Services Contract

Particularly within the Technical Approach subfactor (the most important within the Mission Suitability factor), Boeing’s proposal was the lowest rated of the four offers, with the inadequacy of its cargo stowage design identified as a significant weakness. I further note that Boeing took several exceptions to the RFP and predicated its fixed price on several key assumptions/exceptions. This made it impossible for the SEB to determine whether Boeing’s offered price was reasonable. From a Past Performance standpoint, Boeing did very well, having earned a High Level of Confidence rating (along with NGIS and SpaceX). However, Boeing’s High rating cannot overcome its Mission Suitability ratings and the significant issues present in its Price proposal. That is, since Boeing’s proposal was the highest priced and the lowest rated under the Mission Suitability factor, while additionally providing a conditional fixed price, I have decided to eliminate Boeing from further award consideration. This offeror’s evaluation results and my assessment thereof, combined with the relative order of importance of the RFP’s evaluation factors, have led me to conclude that Boeing is not competitive for award.

It’s Not Boeing And They Ain’t Going.

Gone are the days when Boeing was run by engineers and ruled the world.

 Posted by at 3:47 am

“Almost” the Shuttle

 aircraft, art, history, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Apr 122020
 

Rockwell’s Space Shuttle design as of November, 1972. Obviously very similar to the final product, but a few notable differences, including the retro-rocket on the nose of the ET (meant to make sure the tank fell into the Indian Ocean), the sleeker OMS pods, fairings extending onto the cargo bay doors; the External Tank being about 2 feet narrow in diameter and this notably longer; the slightly repositioned boosters; and a myriad of slight differences in contours.

 Posted by at 2:52 am

RIP Fingers

 AARRRGH, cats, news, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Apr 102020
 

Months of pain for Fingers ended this morning. Her dental issues turned out to be the result of an aggressive cancer, something that the vet could not offer any hope of fixing, only prolonging. So the decision was made to send Fingers on her way.

It would please me to think that Fingers is now wherever Raedthinn is. She had been missing him for nearly two years now; once he died, she never again purred quite as loudly or seemed quite as happy.  It would be  nice if that situation was now rectified.

 

Goddamnitsomuch.

 Posted by at 10:00 am

China

 AARRRGH, Forward!, news, politics, THIS is why Trump won, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Apr 102020
 

Via Local Commie Underlings, Beijing Officially Disapproves

The Chinese consulate general in Australia was annoyed that the Daily Telegraph newspaper made mention of the Chinese Communist’s responsibilities for the current crisis. Rather shockingly for modern Western media, the newspaper actually called out Commie bullcrap and told the ChiComs to shove it.

And for the polar opposite:

Nature magazine apologises for reports linking Covid-19 with China

The Kung Flu is not just a problem, it’s an opportunity. In fact, a whole bunch of opportunities. A major opportunity is to withdraw industry and trade from China. Dunk them into a generations-long depression and restore western industrial might… a win-win. Another opportunity is to clean house locally. Editorial boards who knuckle under to Commies can now be easily seen, and should be invited to explore new career opportunities in the food service or hoboing professions.

 Posted by at 1:36 am

Sikorsky stowed-rotor aircraft ad

 aircraft, history, projects  No Responses »
Apr 092020
 

A mid-1960’s magazine ad, selling Sikorsky’s experience at developing stowed-rotor technology. The design used was a concept for a CARA (Combat Aircrew Recovery Aircraft), intended to dash at high speed over the jungles of Viet Nam, hover like a helicopter and winch up a downed pilot, then dash back to base. To do this the aircraft used a rotor that was spun up not by a mechanical drive system, but by tapping off the exhaust of the turbojet engines and routing it through ducts to the rotor tips. Doubtless it would have worked… and doubtless the transition phase would have been interesting and exciting.

 Posted by at 12:06 pm

Comrade Bernie: Redundant

 Forward!, Hmm..., news, politics  No Responses »
Apr 082020
 

Bernie Sanders took a good, hard look at the Wuhan Flu and realized that since it is doing a fantastic job of trashing the US economy *and* in sowing misery and death, his campaign for the Presidency was redundant. Instead he can simply sit back and watch the disease from Communist China do the job his policies would have done.

Bernie Sanders drops out of the 2020 race, clearing Joe Biden’s path to the Democratic nomination

While it’s good to shuffle this old Marxist off the stage, the fact that he got as close as he did points out how badly the US educational system has fallen down on the job in the last generation or two. History and civics classes should do a better job of pointing out to the kiddies that socialism and fascism are barely discernible ideologies on most metrics, and that the Holocaust and the Holodomor are less opposite side of the same coin than they are the same side of the same coin.

 Posted by at 3:01 pm
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