The song “Blinding Lights” by “The Weeknd” has recently been popular. Which is a little strange, since it sound like it came straight out of the 80’s. Which is especially strange given that the singer/songwriter, one Abel Tesfae, was born in February 1990.
I feel, once again, old.
If you’ve been waiting your whole life to see high-speed, high-def footage taken from a racing drone as if flies under, above, alongside and sometimes *through* the flames from a flamethrower… well, here ya go.
Yow.
And, yes, flamethrowers are legal in the US. Some states have laws against them, but, perhaps oddly, the federal government does not. Sure, the ATF will squat on your head if you have a machinegun or a grenade launcher, but a flame thrower? Pfff. Don’t worry about it.
Sea Dragon was, as is doubtless news to few around here, an early 1960’s idea at Aerojet for an extremely large, very simply two-stage pressure-fed space booster. It was meant to be as cheap to build and operate as possible with 1960’s tech, relying on scale to make it all work. Would it have worked? Maybe. Physics supports it. Would it have been cheap to operate? Hard to tell. “Simple as possible” does not equate to “simple,” and anything the size of Sea Dragon, especially screaming out of the sky to smack into the ocean while blisteringly hot… well, there are always risks.
In 1963 the idea of a pinpoint vertical landing a la the Falcon 9 would have been ridiculous, so splashdown was really the only way to go for a booster designed for simplicity. But as NASA and Thiokol found with dropping Shuttle boosters into the drink, recovery and refurbishment after salt water immersion can be a bit of a headache. The way to make a Sea Dragon truly economically competitive would be, as with Falcon 9, flight after flight after flight, often enough that it ceases to be an Amazing News Story and becomes, like the Falcon 9, seemingly dull and monotonous. But given the million-pound payload of the Sea Dragon it’s difficult to envision a space program following on the footsteps of Apollo that would have required a Sea Dragon every few weeks. It would certainly have been *nice* to have had such a program (and if the current pandemic takes down western civ it will turn out that the lack of such a program was criminally negligent) but the existence of a timeline with such a program seems a little difficult to envision.
The article, written by sea Dragon advocate Robert Truax, that the above illustration came from has been scanned and made available to above-$10 APR subscribers and Patrons.
Suuuuuuuuuuure it does.
Reason given: the “complexity of their unique circumstances.”
Riiiiiiiiiight.
UPDATE: Disney packs it in.
— Disney Parks News (@DisneyParksNews) March 13, 2020
It’s still cool to come in from Asia, though, right? At least Japan is still acceptable, IIRC.
Bonus round:
Ruh-roh… the virus is hitting America’s celebrities now. NOW it’s serious!
Huh.
When I produce something, I usually give it an accurate, functional name. “Aerospace Projects Review. “US Bomber Projects.” Sometimes, the names are self-deprecating yet still accurate, such as “The Unwanted Blog.” I always figured that that was the way to do it, because *clearly* what the public wants is clarity and accuracy.
Guess I was wrong.
Which describes the findings of this paper, available in PDF:
Across four studies participants (N= 818) rated the profoundness of abstract art images accompanied with varying categories of titles, including: pseudo-profound ᛒᚢᛚᛋᚺᛁᛏ titles (e.g.,The Deaf Echo), mundane titles (e.g.,Canvas 8), and no titles. Randomly generated pseudo-profound ᛒᚢᛚᛋᚺᛁᛏ titles increased the perceived profoundness of computer-generated abstract art,compared to when no titles were present (Study 1). Mundane titles did not enhance the perception of profoundness, indicating that pseudo-profound ᛒᚢᛚᛋᚺᛁᛏ titles specifically (as opposed to titles in general) enhance the perceived profoundness of abstract art (Study 2). Furthermore, these effects generalize to artist-created abstract art (Study 3). Finally, we report a large correlation between profoundness ratings for pseudo-profound ᛒᚢᛚᛋᚺᛁᛏ and “International Art English” statements (Study 4), a mode and style of communication commonly employed by artists to discuss their work. This correlation suggests that these two independently developed communicative modes share underlying cognitive mechanisms in their interpretations. We discuss the potential for these results to be integrated into a larger, new theoretical framework of ᛒᚢᛚᛋᚺᛁᛏ as a low-cost strategy for gaining advantages in prestige awarding domains.
The sci-fi novel I wrote a few years ago and failed to get published had a pretty mundane title. Maybe I should look up an artsy gibberish generator.
So… is he lying, or is it the dementia?
Ladies and gentlemen, the possible next President of the United States:
“This is not OK, alright?” the man said, to which Biden replied, “Don’t tell me that, pal, or I’m going to go out and slap you in the face.”
“You’re working for me, man!” the worker said.
“I’m not working for you,” Biden said. “Don’t be such a horse’s ass.”
Detroit auto worker: "You are actively trying to diminish our Second Amendment right and take away our guns."
Joe Biden: "You're full of shit."
Biden staffer: "Alright, thank you guys–"
Biden: "No, shush! Shush!"pic.twitter.com/j1fIE5c0HN
— Matt Wolking (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@MattWolking) March 10, 2020
WATCH: Joe Biden calls a Detroit auto worker "a horse's ass" after the voter confronted him over wanting to take away Americans' Second Amendment rights. pic.twitter.com/G7R6PJbcKv
— Trump War Room – Text EMPOWER to 88022 (@TrumpWarRoom) March 10, 2020
He wants to make AR-15’s as illegal to own as machine guns. And AR-14’s as well. And you shouldn’t be allowed to own 100 bullets if I’m hearing him right. And if you say he wants to take our guns, why, you’re wrong. Somehow. I’m sure if you are senile enough it makes some sort of sense.
What the frak is it with these jackhole politicians who, on the one hand, say quite clearly that they want to make standard capacity magazines illegal and to ban conventional firearms that millions of people own… and then promptly say that they’re *not* going to take the peoples guns away?
ADDITIONAL: When Beto O’Roarke endorsed Biden, Biden made sure to point out that Beto – who has previously declared his intention to decree tens of millions of Americans overnight felons, eligible for no-knock SWATting raids with doubtless many summary executions – to be his point man on dealing with the “gun problem:”
Beto O’Rourke championed eliminating your #2A rights, confiscating your guns, & punishing law-abiding Americans
Joe Biden just promised to put Beto in charge of “the gun problem” to “lead this effort”
Joe wants to take away Americans’ guns just as badly as Beto!
WATCH👇 pic.twitter.com/G9T4MFuoPB
— Trump War Room – Text EMPOWER to 88022 (@TrumpWarRoom) March 3, 2020
Protestors try to lob a firebomb at the Mexican Presidential residence and end up setting their own ablaze.
Stunning and brave, ladies.
Mexican pro abortion Feminists try to learn how to throw a bomb… without much success pic.twitter.com/PaEYqCBPvH
— Alejandro Bermudez (@albermudezr) March 9, 2020
Tim Pool has some interesting comments on this incident and the protest around it.
I’m not much an ideologue on the issue of abortion; I can see valid points on both sides. But *this*? Nope. Nuh-uh.
There are good reasons for getting an abortion: rape, incest, dire health risk to the mother, visible monsterism. But because you gots ta get rich? Ya suck.
By the way, that thumbnail created for the video is never going to not be hilarious. Especially given that the Bond villain shown is known for *not* being much of a monologuer.
