May 102009
 

As I’m preparing for a trip, blog postings may be a bit fewer and farther between for a while.

As a follow-up to this post, here is the sole decent Rockwell X-30 NASP drawing that I believe that I have (might have something else squirreled away somewhere, but nothing springs to mind). Note that compared to the artwork, the drawings show a “tubbier” fuselage. Given the light and fluffy nature of liquid hydrogen, that seems rather more believable than the relatively slim fuselage shown in the paintings.

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And below is a quick-and-dirty pasting of the three components, with a  bit of rotating and resizing to get things to line up.

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 Posted by at 12:37 am
May 082009
 

When you couple an amusingly bizarre story with invented outrage, and pile on a heaping helping of unfortunate names, the result is comedy gold.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/05/07/9387616-cp.html

Giovanni Iuliani isn’t laughing about an ad campaign by Quebec’s biggest convenience store chain which features happy clowns meeting gruesome deaths in two separate ads.

One of Couche-Tard’s online ads has a multi-coloured clown giggling uncontrollably as he is hacked to pieces.

The other sees another clown just as ecstatic as he gets shredded to pieces by a mechanical saw and coming out the other end in the form of balloons and pieces of confetti.

Couche-Tard?

If’n ya wanna see the ads, they’re here: http://www.sloche.com/ . They’re bizarre, but chock full of win.

 Posted by at 8:19 pm
May 082009
 

This didn’t take long. From The American Vision Blog:

Our friends at The Patriot Depot just received a call from Rosemarie in Ball, Louisiana alerting Patriot Depot that her brother-in-law was stopped by small town Louisiana police and detained by the roadside for half an hour. A background check was conducted to determine whether he was a member of an “extremist” group. Why? Her brother-in-law (name not disclosed for privacy) had purchased and displayed a conservative “Don’t Tread on Me” bumper sticker on his car.

Oy. Don’t know if it’s true, or whether there might be a bit more of a story here… but if it is as put forward, sounds like the Louisiana police have some ‘splainin’ to do.

 Posted by at 12:17 am
May 082009
 

After reading that Rupert Murdoch is going to start charging money to see his online news sites, the thought occured to me to wonder how much people would pay to read blogs such as mine, and whether it’d even be technically practical. Assume that I wanted to charge one penny to view a picture… you could read the article and see the thumbnail, but clicking on the thumbnail to see the full-rez view would charge you one cent. In order for people to not simply turn the computer off and go and have some sort of life, the process would have to be essentially invisible: you want to see the picture, you click on it, boom, there it is. Not like ordering one of my products via PayPal, which involves more steps (but which is still very easy and completely worth it, and if you don’t immediately head out and buy something of mine, you’re a dirty commie).

Has anyone ever heard of such a process, either in use or in development? I don’t imagine that charging much more than a penny or a dime per image would be worth it for most people, but if it was seamless, it might be a way to keep me in the poverty with which I have become accustomed. You’d see thumbnails like the ones below, click, and I’d be a penny, a nickle, a dime richer, and you’d be able to experience the awesomeness that I’ve put forth.
biplane-1.jpg img_0696.jpg cl-362-2-space-fighter.jpg img_0952.jpg cl-1214-1.jpg img_2882.jpg douglas-atb-art.jpg img_3313.jpg hermes3.JPG img_4191.jpg image52.jpg nuke.jpg lunar-lander.jpg space-bomber.jpg  xb-68-316.jpg  tav.jpg

 Posted by at 12:11 am
May 072009
 

From ABC 4 (Utah affiliate):

 President Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, tells the U.S. News and World Report that Governor Jon Huntsman makes him, a “wee bit queasy…I think he’s really out there speaking a lot of truth about the direction of the party.”

To which Kirk Jowers of the University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics says, “Huntsman has positioned himself in a great place right now because he is the only presidential candidate really running in the middle right now.”

Huntsman is the one who correctly noted: “If we’re going to survive as a party, we need to focus on the environment… There’s a fundamental tone deafness with our party when it comes to the environment. … The last place we can be as a party is be viewed as the anti-science party. That’s not a model for the future.

 Posted by at 2:47 pm
May 062009
 

Comign soon will be a number of drawings of V-2 componants, and some related drawings of German rocketry. They are scanned in, but not yet made presentable… a *lot* of work to do. But there’s some definite spiffiness involved. Here are two, reduced in size by 90% showing the Wasserfall anti-aircraft missile and a detail of the A-4 rocket engine injector head.

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 Posted by at 8:33 pm
May 062009
 

In general, I approve of “conservative” principles over “liberal” principles. But there are some “conservatives” out there who are just outright freakin’ embarassing. Witness Barbara Cargill.

With the Republican party in a state of disarray, and the possibility of the Democrat party tearing itself apart over the question of whether or not to go outright fascist, there is hope that things will re-organize into a proper pattern, with the Creationists on the side of the Democrats. Because, lets face it, Creationism (i.e. the notion that the Earth was poofed into existence by God around 10,000 years ago in it’s more or less current state, with the critters and humans not having evolved) is a “progressive” idea, while Evolution is clearly a “conservative” idea. Attend:

There is a concept on how things work. Here are some of its important features:

1) There is a central authority directing everything

2) Competition is not important

3) Winners and losers are not determined by abilities and environmental conditions, but by decision from that central authority

4) There is hope that the central authority can be persuaded by earnest pleadings… but don’t bet on it

5) Strive for equality

6) Rather than chaos, everything is planned out in advance

7) Do not question the central authority

8 ) Do no attempt to profit from the misfortune of others

Now… does this describe Creationism, or the goals of “progressive” economics?

On the other hand, there is a competing concept of how things work. Its main features:

A) There is no central authority directing everything

B) Competition is vital and ever-present

C) Winners and losers are determined by who is best able to prosper in the environment; there is no central authority who makes these decisions

D) You’re on your own, with no illusions

E) Liberty is a given

F) In the grand scheme, there is no grand plan

G) Question everything

H) Has there been a disaster? Figure out how to profit from it.
Now does this describe Darwinian evolution… or the free market?

There was a time when Democrats like William Jennings Bryan were the loud barking dogs for both huge-ass governemnt and religious government. There’s no reason why that cannot be the state of thigns again. because, let’s face it, big-ass government and extreme religiousity pretty much go hand in hand. How can you enforce a particular religious worldview on everybody without the power of da gubmint? And what bigger Big Government Program could there possibly be than a universe only 6000 years old, micromanaged by an unstoppable god?
Now, it would be fair to say that compared to matters such as the economy going straight down the crapper, constitutional rights being ground away “for the children,” the global Jihad against anything past the 12th century… whether or not Creationist blather makes it into some kids textbook is a relatively minor point. However, Republicans keep pushing this crap. And they keep being called out on it, and it only helps to further the cause of Democratic fascism, since people see there as being only the two options. Well, here’s a thought: Republican party… get your act together, drop the meaningless trivia that divides the party from the people, and focus on core issues. The economy, the Consitution, foreign policy and the Constitution (I like the Constitution). Drop the push to retard science. It does you no good; it helps the opposition. Here’a a good “open letter to the Republican party.” With the money quote: “A party obsessed with issues like condoms and Noah’s Ark isn’t going to succeed.”

 Posted by at 7:42 pm
May 062009
 

From the IndyStar:

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Sukaina al-Zayer is an unlikely beauty queen hopeful. She covers her face and body in black robes and an Islamic veil, so no one can tell what she looks like. She also admits she’s a little on the plump side.

But at Saudi Arabia’s only beauty pageant, the judges don’t care about a perfect figure or face. What they’re looking for in the quest for “Miss Beautiful Morals” is the contestant who shows the most devotion and respect for her parents.

Nods approvingly. Good, goooooood…

 Posted by at 6:37 pm