A slightly later Boeing concept for using a Dyna Soar-like spaceplane as a lunar lander/Earth return vehicle. This one was likely designed to a higher degree of fidelity. I base this on two facts:
1) It has a much more realistic “Earth return vehicle size to launch vehicle size” ratio
2) It comes equipped with a Boeing model number (830-718) and weight numbers.
Scale can be roughly estimated by the tiny little figure at the bottom.
Took some shots of the tail-end of a storm that blew by late last night. Didn’t get any lightningbolts, but I did catch quite a few of the clouds flashing with the lightning beyond.
This one shows lightning *way* off to the north:
This one shows lightning seemingly above Brigham City, or maybe Ogden:
And here’s a similar shot, but without lightning. You can see that someone is getting dumped on.
I took a number of photos (ten second exposures) on automatic. I converted them into an animated GIF image that’s actually pretty sweet at decent resolution, but has a huge filesize. Anyone know how to convert an animated GIF into a video format YouTube accepts? Here’s the dinkysize version:
UPDATE: Here’s the YouTube video:
Read this TWICE!
From the Washington Post:
Let’s say you’re preparing dinner and you realize with dismay that you don’t have any certified organic Tuscan kale. What to do?
<> Here’s how Michelle Obama handled this very predicament Thursday afternoon: The Secret Service and the D.C. police brought in three dozen vehicles and shut down H Street, Vermont Avenue, two lanes of I Street and an entrance to the McPherson Square Metro station.
What. The. Hell.
This tone-deaf, arrogant administration in a freakin’ nutshell.
Woman Doing OK After Being Impaled By Tree
Michelle Childers, 20, and her husband were driving down a rural road along a river in the north-central part of the state on Sept. 5 when a spruce tree crashed through the passenger side window of their pickup truck.
With no cell phone service in the area, the couple drove to the Lochsa Lodge, near the Idaho-Montana border, to call for help and arrived about an hour after the tree limb went into her.
…
While Childers waited to be flown by helicopter to St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula, Mont., she said a nurse and her husband were staying at the lodge and tried to calm her down.
…
While Childers waited to be flown by helicopter to St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula, Mont., she said a nurse and her husband were staying at the lodge and tried to calm her down.
And because there’s no such thing as a news story without a political angle:
Childers doesn’t have insurance. Friends have set up an account for the couple at a local Sterling Savings bank location to help pay for her medical expenses.
Huh.
1) Had no medical insurance
2) Got impaled by a tree
3) Got airlifted by helicopter
4) Had a six hour surgery
5) Is doing fine
6) Had no medical insurance.
But… but… I thought that no medical insurance meant you were left to die in the streets here in AmeriKKa???
Was it only April? There was President Obama, speaking (as is his wont) in Prague, about the Iranian nuclear program and ballistic-missile capability, and saluting America’s plucky allies: “The Czech Republic and Poland have been courageous in agreeing to host a defense against these missiles,” he declared. “As long as the threat from Iran persists, we will go forward with a missile-defense system that is cost-effective and proven.”
On Thursday, the administration scrapped its missile-defense plans for Eastern Europe. The “courageous” Czechs and Poles will have to take their chances. Did the “threat from Iran” go away? Not so’s you’d notice. The dawn of the nuclear ayatollahs is perhaps only months away, and, just in case the Zionists or (please, no tittering) the formerly Great Satan is minded to take ’em out, Tehran will shortly be taking delivery of a bunch of S-300 anti-aircraft batteries from (ta-da!) Russia. Fancy that.
Awesome. Not only taking a giant dump on our allies, but also kowtowing to those who would gladly arm our enemies.
Oh, and flat-out lying. I’m amazed that anyone still supports Barky. Now, couple the foreign policy of appeasign those who would harm us while crapping on our allies with this:
Rising Debt May Cause Sun to Set on U.S. Economy
As an economic power, the U.S. may go the way of the British Empire because of the government’s increasing debt burden, according to Richard A. Posner, an economist and federal judge.
The CHART OF THE DAY shows how the public debt, or the national debt aside from liabilities for entitlement programs, has climbed in the past year.
…
Declining tax revenue, rising Medicare costs, congressional reluctance to cut spending or raise levies, and the likely cost of efforts to overhaul health care and promote climate control will push the debt higher, in Posner’s view.“At some point the wheels may start coming off the chassis,” he wrote. “The United States may find itself in the kind of downward economic spiral in which ‘developing’ countries often find themselves.” He drew the comparison with the British Empire, whose economic position in the early 20th century was similar to the U.S. role today.
It’s becoming more and more difficult to see Obama’s long term goals as anything but eliminating the US as a world player.
The answer to the last “ID this aircraft contest:” the Bell D90-945-057, a fixed-wing, supersonic derivative of the X-5 (itself a derivative of the wartime German Messerschmit P.1101). Known – at least to me – solely from a single large-format drawing held by the National Archives, this aircraft differed in important respects from the X-5. The fixed wing is the most obvious difference, but the pointed radome nose and the variable-ramp inlet certainly modernized the design considerably. Dates from 1950.
If you like this sort aerospace history and/or the other stuff I post, you can support the cause by Buying My Stuff, which includes aerospace drawings and documents, as well as the journal of unbuilt aircraft and spacecraft projects, Aerospace Projects Review. Or you could just Donate.
Ever since I’ve had her (since 2000-ish), Koshka has done a weird ritualistic thing I call “praying,” since that’s kinda what it looks like. I’ve taken a few snapshots of her doing this (such as these), but until tonight I’ve never caught her on video doing it.
Just imagine the howls had this point of view been expressed about *Bush.*
President Obama, race and the unpatriotic right
This whole screed is chock-full-o-nuts, but it ends on the truly delusional:
I would remind the far right what the Apostle Paul wrote, ” … there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.” Hence, Obama is the U.S. president and leader of the Free World because he was appointed by God.
Need I say more?
Yeah. You could say, “Sorry, I seem to have forgotten to take my anti-psychotic meds for today.”
A patriot is one who loves, supports and defends his or her nation and loves its citizens, especially the U.S. president. A patriot subscribes to symbolic values such as honoring the flag, singing the national anthem and fighting nonviolently for fundamental freedoms.
Wow. Really? Loving the president is now one of the defining values of a patriot? What the hell happened to “dissent is the highest form of patriotism?” And when did the Left decide that singing the national anthem was a Really Important Thing?
And I’m sorry, but fighting “nonviolently” for fundamental freedoms did not *win* those freedoms. Grabing the assault weapon of the day and perforating a whole lot of British and Hessian soldiers won those freedoms. That ain’t non-violent. I may not be an expert, but I’m pretty sure nailing someone with a lead ball the size and speed of a deer slug is kinda the direct opposite of “non-violent.”
The rest of the ill-informed and ill-intentioned piece perpetuates the poplar leftist myth that opposition to socialism is de facto racism.
Jeremy Levitt is associate dean for International Programs and a distinguished professor of international law at Florida A&M University College of Law in Orlando.
I weep for the future if this is the caliber of professor Universities stoop to employ these days.
This is another example of the Leftist Who Cried Racism, doing his part to eliminate the value in the word “racism.”
“Truthers” are those nutburgers who think that the 9/11 was perpetrated not by 19 pissed off Muslims, but by the US government.
“Birthers” are those zealous in their faith that Obama was born in Kenya or Indonesia or some damned place. (While there are a *lot* of unanswered basic questions regarding Barky’s paperwork – including so far a lack of a long-form birth certificate and the virtually complete absense of his university records and writings – the fact that his birth was announced at the time in a Hawaiian newspaper pretty much seals the deal).
It’s time for a new group: the “Racers.” Those who either see all opposition to Obama as racism, or simply choose to call all opposition to Obama “racism.”
And just as someone announcing that they are a “Truther” or a “Birther” is sufficient cause for them to be laughed out of public discourse… so too should the “Racers” be laughed out of the court of public opinion.
All it takes is darkness, some trees, a good green laser, a good camera with a long exposure, and a willingness to do something casually pointless that, in some other context, would get you branded as the best new artist to come along the New York Art Scene since Andy “I have no talent except for bullshitting the gullible” Warhol.
Koshka has always been a skinny cat, a fact hidden by her fluffy fur. But lately it’s becoem clear that she’s not just skinny… she’s a furry little bag of pointy bones. So a week ago I took her to the vet. Bloodwork was done, showing that she has both hyperthyroidism and some kidney trouble. As a result she was prescribed pills for the thyroid issue and special food for the kidney troubles. Raedthinn has been less than thrilled with this, as it has meant locking away *his* food except for supervised feeding times, as I want here to eat only the food she’s supposed to.
Sadly, she doesn’t *like* the special food. And being a cat, she’d rather go hungry than eat what she doesn’t want to eat. Grrrrrrr.
The pills were trouble for the first few days until I realized that they dissolve in milk and apparently don’t stink upt the taste.
She’s gotten “emo” down to a science.
