Have I got a deal for you. Shown here is a rather eclectic collection of 36 military manuals. Some are big, some are small. Some might interest you; some might be incredibly dullsville for you. I’ve no idea what each one is worth, but I’d guesstimate that the average would go for something like five bucks each, or $180 for all of them. But if anyone would like the whole pile all at once… $125 plus shipping and they’re yours. Send me an email, first come, first served.
SOLD.
I have two books for sale. Interestingly, I have a few copies of each book. The two books:
1: “Space Planners Guide,” put out by the USAF, Air Force System Command, 1 July 1965. This large format hardcover book is intended to help someone plan pretty much every aspect of a space mission, at least to first order, including the design of space vehicles. Today this would of course all be done on a computer. This books comes with a big pile of transparencies in pockets inside both the front and back covers that include many graphs for use in working out the whichness of the why of all aspects of space planning. The book itself is not classified, but there is a warning inside it telling users to not scribble their findings in the margins because the book can be used to *design* classified vehicles and missions. These are hard to come by; there weren’t that many in the first place. Most of my copies are in very good condition, but one has some damage to the front cover (though none to the interior of the book itself). All come with the transparencies.
Intact copies: $150 each plus postage SOLD OUT
The slightly damaged copy: $135 plus postage SOLD
2: “Handbook of Astronautical Engineering” a massive tome published in 1961, edited by H. H. Koelle, director of the Future Projects Office at NASA-Marshall. This also covers nearly all aspects of space mission and vehicle design, but in much greater detail. It’s a classic.
The Handbooks are $150 each plus postage. I have more of those than the Planners Guides. TWO LEFT
As always, if you are interested, send me an email letting me know which book(s) you want and what your mailing address is. These can be sent via low-cost media mail, but if you want something fast, let me know in the email. As always, it’s first come, first served, but people who want a copy of *both* books go to the head of the line. 
A big mess of photos of these books have been uploaded to Dropbox here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wdhstvjbgaxk527/AAAFBubce_AtrmvVyR5BhREMa?dl=0
Twenty minutes of major corporations making astonishingly bad social media decisions. Prepare to larf.
And here. We. Go.
Even better, there will be race-segregated places where white people will not be allowed to go. And what is the title of this “anti-racism” event? “Resisting Whiteness.” It’s being held in Scotland.Ā į įį£į³įį¾į· į·į©įįįŖįį¾įį Scotland.
Jane McColl, an anti-racism campaigner, said the event itself was āblatantly racistā, adding… “Imagine if this event was called ‘Resisting Blackness’ and non-white people were told they could not ask questions, nor access a room because they were the ‘wrong’ colour.”
Quiet, you.
Homina.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light pic.twitter.com/aGRw4VowAQ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 28, 2019
The Starship program will be updated during a livestream later today:
Forget about the design specifics; the thing that will impress me the most *if* the Starship prototypes work is the fact they were built not in a robotic factory in cleanroom conditions, but basically on a beach.
It’s my understanding that criminal trials pretty much grind to a halt if, right up front, the defendant pleads guilty. I’m not a lawyer and nor do I play one on TV so I may be wrong but that’s how I understand it.
So a thought occurs: what if the defendants at the Nuremburg and Tokyo war crimes trials had all pleaded guilty right up front? Would the trials have just kept trucking along, or would they have more or less ended, going straight to sentencing? Given the historic nature of the trials and how important they were in setting legal precedent, having the trials short circuited could have played merry hell with future international relations. One might even consider that future war crimes trials might have been torpedoed, since if the WWI-trials had all gone differently it could be argued that the whole process was not valid.
Heh.
They’re hiring pilots and a few other positions. Just exactly what’s going on is unclear.
Continuing…
This kinda made sense while the Shuttle was being developed, but by 1985 the idea of a reusable flyback external Tank seemed kinda silly. The only way it could have made financial sense to recover the ET would be if the Shuttle were to fly *far* more often than it actually did.
California effectively decriminalized theft with a value of less than $950. Lo and behold, theft has skyrocketed.
It’s like a low-rent, 24-7 version of The Purge. I’m sufficiently cynical realistic enough to recognize that if you cease to make it seriously illegal to steal, say, TVs, a lot of people will decide to steal TVs. Makes me wonder if They legalized murder, just how many people would decide to go ahead and do it.
I do also wonder about the possible *useful* applications of laws like Prop 47. Go ahead and make retail theft essentially decriminalized, penalized solely by a minor ticket. make it known that this sort of anti-social behavior is essentially tolerated. Then, after a few years… pass another law. One that collects all the data recorded since the original law, allowing the government to simply round up everyone who has been ticketed for thefts like this. And then… strip them of citizenship and deport them. Unconstitutional? Sure. But get around that by calling it the “O’Rourke/Swalwell Nuke’ em Now Executive Order.” “Hell yes we will deport you.”
Sending a million or two people who are clearly of detriment to society somewhere else would do wonders for the crime rate… and the gene pool.