An unbalanced washing machine is *usually* little more than an irritant. But if you have some talent…
Oct 032019
Oct 022019
I found a few things that might be of interest. Not selling them (unless you want to offer me ten grand each… then I suppose I could entertain the notion), just thought them interesting:
1: A Boeing property tag from the SST program.
2: A thank-you card printed up for Werner von Braun. Sadly, not signed. Came tucked into the Spivak archive a year or two back. Seems he might’ve had a 60th birthday party or something and either handed these out or mailed them to attendees or well-wishers or some such.
3: The invitation that was mailed to me back in April of ’96 to go witness the first public launch of the Delta Clipper. I was invited due to my activity within the Iowa State (University) Space Society. We put on the Mid Continent Space Development Conference every year and repeatedly had Bill Gaubatz of McDonnell Douglas come and give a presentation on the Delta Clipper program.
Oct 022019
Will Franken is actually pretty durned funny, and is worthy of a watch.
“Comedy Unleashed” appears to be a comedy club in London that doesn’t actually focus on wokeness, but on funniness. They may be worthy of further examination… and for watching in the future for when they are finally shut down by the Brit government and the owners and comics arrested for crimes of offending people.
Oct 022019
Better part of 20 years ago I started building a 1/24 scale model of the Black Horse SSTO spaceplane. This USAF design was a purely rocket powered vehicle, with engines that burned kerosene-based fuel with hydrogen peroxide oxidizer; it would take off horizontally from a runway with the H2O2 tanks prit near empty, rendezvous at altitude with a tanker aircraft and bring aboard all the H2O2 it needed, then blast off for orbit. It was a cool concept, and it *might* have even worked. So for reasons of my own I decided that what the world needed was a ridiculously large model of the Black Horse. I got as far as a fiberglass shell of the main wing/body, missing only control surfaces, wingtip fins, rocket engines and surface detailing. And then… life intervened, the model got set aside and put out of the way, out of sight and out of mind.
So… anyone want it? As is, with a light dusting of genuine artisanal Utah dust. No reasonable offer refused. Shipping cost is on the buyer; I expect it’ll cost a fair amount, but it is pretty rugged since it’s fiberglass (the original was made of foam and plaster, a fiberglass mold made and a fiberglass shell cast for the final finishing which I never got to). If nobody wants it, no sweat… off to the trash. I’ll give it a day or so.
Oct 012019
There have been a *lot* of movies based on H. G. Wells’ “The War of the Worlds.” And for good reason: it’s not just the first modern “alien invasion” story, it’s still one of the best. Scientifically it’s laughable, and the Martian war machines would be, frankly, easy meat for the SAS if they showed up in today’s Britain. And yet it remains a downright spooky and downright clever.
Most of the WotW adaptations were set in the era in which they were made. The 1950’s movie was set in the 50’s; the 2000’s movie was set in the 2000’s. Both of those were set in the US rather than Britain. There was a low-budget adaptation in 2005 that faithfully placed the action in 1897 Britain… but it was just *awful.*
Now it looks like a big-budget version will be set in the right place and time:
The thing I wonder about, though: it looks like a major role is being played by a red-haired woman. How did the B.B. Cone Network let that slip through? There was a *distinct* lack of diversity shown in this trailer.
The trailer was one of those fast-cuts and short-clips types, so you never get a really good look at anything. However, there is a *hint* that the tripods will “hoot” like they did in the book, something that the 2005 Spielberg adaptation did *really* well. Both the book and movie made my hair stand up on end and try to flee for the far corners when the war machines stood and, essentially, yelled real loud. It’s just a brass tootin’-horn of some kind… but still, dayum.
Don;t run, Britlanders! These migrants will only enrich your culture!
Oct 012019
Continuing…
In 1985, the Space Shuttle program was already about a decade and a half old, the shuttles themselves were already starting to show themselves as “old tech.” It was clear that they would need replacing with a next generation of vehicle, and of course Rockwell wanted to build whatever “Shuttle II” came along… if for no other reason, a Shuttle II would make the Shuttle instantly obsolete and wipe out Rockwell’s Shuttle-based income. It was obvious that such a system would enter service sometime after the year 2000. Not, of course, very long after 2000. That would be nuts.
Interestingly, the illustration Rockwell used for the Next Generation Shuttle was not a Rockwell design, but a NASA-Langley concept for a small “Orbit-on-Demand” vehicle. If you’d like more information on this exact design, boy, have I got a deal for you: it was described and illustrated in US Launch Vehicles Projects #03.
Oct 012019
Uhhhhhh…
Where the interviewer asks a bunch of people questions from the test for immigrants who wish to become US citizens. Obviously not a scientific statistical sampling, but still.
Lots of people have pointed out that the citizenship test that immigrants need to pass would be massively failed by a large portion of the native-born public. This seems almost certain. But often this point is raised to claim that it is thus too difficult for non-Americans to gain citizenship. Many of these folks think that *nothing* should be needed to become a US citizen.
But there’s another way to look at it. Keep the citizenship test. You cannot make existing citizens take it in order to keep their citizenship; if you’re born here, you’re a citizen, just that simple. But… it seems to me that passing this test, or some reasonable portion of it, should be a requirement to be allowed to vote in Federal elections.
Sep 302019
Apropos of nothing, I just found this meme of the Grand Jormungand of the Kids Klimate Kult losing her mind to be modestly entertaining:
“Me, trying to figure out why a screaming 16-year-old is a qualified global policy expert.”
Something that should not be forgotten: Greta Thunberg is the daughter of an actor and the grand-daughter of a director. Consider this: there is a criminal trial. An actor is brought in to give testimony, for either prosecution or defense. Their whole purpose in life is to LIE CONVINCINGLY. As a member of the jury… do you trust the emotional testimony that they give?
Also interesting to note: a polite smile merits hate and rage out of the media; hate and rage merits glowing praise from the media. Hmm.
Sep 302019
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.
Sep 292019
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