Nov 052009
 

From CNN:

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, a law enforcement source told CNN. Licensed in Virginia, Hasan was a psychiatrist who previously worked at Walter Reed Army Medical Center but more recently was practicing at Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood, according to professional records

For Allah’s sake… do NOT profile. That would be wrong.

 Posted by at 5:47 pm
Nov 052009
 

It looks like a real enough desktop/display model… but it also looks like something that was designed while drunk. Anybody have a clue? There’s not only the issue with the wierd U-shaped supports up front (or whatever they are), there’s also the bulbous tail with what looks like a multitude of little ports.

 Posted by at 3:38 pm
Nov 052009
 

The Happiness Hat.

A wearable conditioning device that detects if you’re smiling and provides pain feedback if you’re not. Frowning creates intense pain but a full smile leaves you pain free! The first in a series of Tools for Improved Social Inter-Acting.

Oh, sure, it’s just something of a joke (I think). But I can see the Nannystaters deciding that this is Just The Thing to make the populace much more happier, and will ponder making it mandatory.

For those well-versed in the Classics, the Happiness Hat is nothing new.

And for those well-versed in Classic Fashion, the hat itself looks particularly cunning.

 Posted by at 11:55 am
Nov 052009
 

Someone at the Chicago Tribune figured it out…

Imagine this. At a time of political turmoil, a charismatic, telegenic new leader arrives virtually out of nowhere. He offers a message of hope and reconciliation based on compromise and promises to marshal technology for a better future that will include universal health care.

“V” was certainly worth watching on its own merits. I was a fan of the original “V” back in the day, so I was a bit leery of this new one. But it was well done. One thing that’s unclear is why the Visitors have come… unlike what the Tribune author says, they have not yet made it clear that they are here to eat the humans. It’s just that they’re here with *not* our best interests in mind.

Some interesting features:

1) The V’s offer Universal Healthcare

2) The V’s “are of peace… always”

3) The V’s have infiltrated all levels of society/government

4) The V’s actively court “youth” to be “ambassadors”

5) The kids so seduced by the V’s spread pro-V propaganda via viral videos, tagging, etc.

6) The V’s offer Hope

7) Many humans respond with adoration, devotion and worship

8 ) Reporters who ask tough questions are shouted down by other reporters who want them to “show some respect”

9) The leader of the V’s won’t allow questions that cast the V’s in a bad light, and will find reporters willing to corrupt their journalistic principles to promote their careers in order to get the right sort of positive questions asked

The notion that this new “V” is something of a slap against the Obama administration and the hysterical cult of personality that has surrounded it is unavoidable. But will it last? Since this is Hollywood, I can’t see it… sooner or later, they’ll turn it around and the Obamunists will emerge as the good guys.

 Posted by at 11:34 am
Nov 052009
 

Second in the series of reconstructed drawings from Paul Suhler’s book “From RAINBOW to GUSTO.” Here we have the “B-2” design, a U-2 designed for lower RCS. This is Figure 16 (also Figure 17, since the two configurations have identical moldlines).Due to low image quality in the original, this particular drawing has a Source Grade of two:

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“RAINBOW to GUSTO” is available from Amazon.com (for $39.95) and direct from the AIAA ($29.95 for AIAA members).

To download the high-rez version of the B-2 drawing, simply click THIS LINK. You will be prompted for a username and a password. For the B-2 drawing, use these:

Username: the first word in the body of the text on page 56
Password: the first word in the body of the text on page 57

The high-rez drawing also includes dimensions of the B-2.

Up next: Figure 19, “General Arrangement #2,” AKA “GUSTO Model I.”

 Posted by at 9:58 am
Nov 052009
 

Back when I thought that photography was going to rake me in the monies, I had printed up a big fat pile of prints. Since then, they have done a magnificent job of sitting around, taking up space, collecting dust, etc. As winter is now approaching and temperatures have dropped to freezing at night, I’m looking at these stacks of prints and wondering just how useful burning them would be to help keep me and my two cats warm at night.

In lieu of simply burning them (or shotgunning them… I suspect that that would be really cathartic), here’s a last attempt at selling them. I tried and failed to sell them for $25 each. Now I’ll try selling them for $10 each which was, IIRC, less than I paid to have them printed in the first place. If you want any of these, let me know at this email address: . Shipping will be $4 for the first three, $1 each thereafter in the US;$6.50 for the first 3 + $1.50 each for overseas orders.

Think of it… these are the only copies of these prints in existence, and there aren’t that many of ’em. Imagine what their resale value on eBay will be when I gain dictatorial power after the zombie apocalypse!

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Photo 14. Mantua, Utah. 1 print on hand Sold.

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Photo 30. Uvas Canyon, CA. 14 prints on hand.

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Photo 36. West of Chicago. 1 print on hand.

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Photo 37. Great Salt Lake. 6 prints on hand.

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Photo 38. Lum’s Pond Dragonfly, side. 3 2 prints on hand

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Photo 39. Lum’s Pond Dragonfly, front. 6 prints on hand

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Photo 42. Hawk. 2 prints on hand.

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Photo 44. Near Medicine Bow National Forest. 2 prints on hand

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Photo 45, sepia. Green River, Wyoming. 3 prints on hand.

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Photo 45, black and white. Green River, Wyoming. 3 prints on hand.
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Photo 31. Fingers the cat. 9 prints on hand.

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Photo 32: Fingers the cat. 7 prints on hand.
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Photo 33: Fingers the cat. 6 prints on hand.

 Posted by at 9:26 am
Nov 032009
 

.. is its reliance upon empirical facts.

 Yes, scientists do much good. But a country run by these arrogant gods of certainty would truly be hell on earth

The trouble with a ‘scientific’ argument, of course, is that it is not made in the real world, but in a laboratory by an unimaginative academic relying solely on empirical facts.

The only difference between Hitler and previous governments was that he believed, with babyish credulity, in science as the only truth. He allowed scientists freedoms which a civilised government would have checked.

The worship of science is the great superstition of our age.

There was a blanket denunciation of his heresy, just as there is if anyone dares to point out some of the mistakes made by that very fallible genius Charles Darwin.

Science rules – and it does so with just as much energy as the old Spanish Inquisition that refused to allow any creed other than Catholicism, and with the Inquisition’s need to distort arguments and control the brains of men and women who might otherwise think for themselves.

I feel substantially dumber for having read that.

 Posted by at 5:04 pm
Nov 032009
 

Now available are four Sikorsky diagrams of an early concept for the S-72 RSRA (Rotor Systems Research Aircraft). While pretty similar to the final product, the most obvious difference is that this concept had a fan-in-tail rather than a tail rotor.

All four drawings are black & white. Included are a 6360X2704 pixel general arrangement; a 4966X1587 pixel cutaway perspective; a 6011X2741 pixel inboard view; and a 4948X2832 pixel structural arrangement.The RSRS drawings can be downloaded for $5.50.


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 Posted by at 1:10 pm