Saw this rolled-over minivan on the way home from Salt Lake City today. Note the childs bike in the back.
Nov 092009
Nov 082009
Oh, lovely. Once again, leave it to the *non* American media to dig up the more important parts of the back-story. From the Telegraph (not, strangely, MSNBC):
Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the gunman who killed 13 at America’s Fort Hood military base, once gave a lecture to other doctors in which he said non-believers should be beheaded and have boiling oil poured down their throats.
He also told colleagues at America’s top military hospital that non-Muslims were infidels condemned to hell who should be set on fire. The outburst came during an hour-long talk Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, gave on the Koran in front of dozens of other doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington DC, where he worked for six years before arriving at Fort Hood in July.
…
Fellow doctors have recounted how they were repeatedly harangued by Hasan about religion and that he openly claimed to be a “Muslim first and American second.”One Army doctor who knew him said a fear of appearing discriminatory against a Muslim soldier had stopped fellow officers from filing formal complaints.
It’s things like this, coupled with the Obamists incessant claims that opposition to socialism is racist, that lead me more and more to the conclusion that politcal correctness and those who promote it can go directly to Niflheim. A “fear of appearing discriminatory” seems to have prevented the Army from doing what it should have, long ago… showing this dumbass the door. Had he been given a dishonorable discharge immediately after this little speech, he would not have been in the position to murder 13 of what he should have seen as his fellow Americans.
If you are in the military and someone spouts treason like this… Turn His Ass In. If you get in trouble for it… go to the press.
Now my mood of levity seems to have slipped again.
Nov 082009
OK, what with the twin tragedies from Fort Hood a few days ago and Washington, D.C., last night, it’s a bit hard to find somethign to laugh at. “Jetpack” did it for me. And THIS does it as well, and it probably should for you, too. It’s the funniest bit of “reality” I’ve seen today.
Nov 082009
Nov 082009
Now that there are several actual cyanotype blueprints available, it’s time to have a sale!
B-29/B-36/727 sale: Normally these woudl run $19 separately, but for the next week or so, get the three of them together for only $12!
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Additionally, while not true blueprints, the Convair Nuclear Aircraft preliminary designs are still kinda/sorta blueprints, just blue lines on white-ish paper. So there’s a sale on those as well. Saro/Turbojet Logistics/Turboprop Logistics/AEW/ASW would normally run $27.50 to download separately, but for this sale, get them all for just $15!
Nov 082009
In 2000, IBM ran a commercial with Avery Brooks asking “Where are the flying cars?” That became a minor meme.
Here’s another one that probably should… the song “Jetpack” by Tim Wilson. I’ve not heard it anywhere but on the Bob & Tom show some weeks back… and after spending $0.99 to download it from Amazon.com. Every time I listen to it I laugh myself fuzzy. For anyone with an interest in aerospace, the future-that-wasn’t, jetpacks, humor, whatever… it’s definitely worth the ninety-nine cents to download. Be aware that the language in it is not exactly office-friendly… unless you work in an office populated by adults, not easily offended control freaks.
And on the other end of the humor spectrum is this AIG commercial from 2001. Over scenes of disastrous early space launch failures, transitioning to scenes of the successful Apollo missions, a woman reads from T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” At the time I had no idea what the hell they were trying to sell me, but it’s one damnably beautiful bit of short video.
Nov 082009
After America entered WWII, what happened to American Nazi Party members who stood on streetcorners and spouted pro-Nazi bullcrap? Why should things be so different today, when Islamofascists such as these stand on the streets of New York City and preach the murder of Americans?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhHYiWCm8Gs
Note the the idjit with the big mouth is not some import from overseas, but some dumbass white kid who has been not only Islamicized, but radicalized.
Note also that he is *not* alone, but has quite a number of fellow Jihadis with him, shouting “Allahu Ackbar.”
Even CNN has picked up on this.
Free speech is important in America. But just as shouting “fire” in a crowded theater is not protected speech (when there is no fire, that is), I believe it’s fair to begin to question whether shouting “Allahu Ackbar” in a public space is fair cause for a physical response. My recommendation for the moment is that there *should* be a response to these jackholes spouting their whackjob philosophy… and that response should come from Muslims. Muslims who want America to not turn on their religion and drive them from our shores had best deal with this cancer in their midst. The United States is not Europe… we don’t explode into periodic spasms of genocide. But as Pearl Harbor showed, if you push us far enough, we can take actions against whole groups.
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Nov 072009
At long overdue last, Justo Miranda’s “Unknown!” volume 3 is now available for download. This issue includes: 26 pages of English text, 34 pages of technical illustrations with 148 1/72 scale drawings and two pages of colour illustrations.The Unknown! series is at the bottom of this page:
http://www.up-ship.com/blog/drawndoc/rd/rd.htm
Unknown! #3 covers:
*Horten X series, Horten Ho X “Volksjäger”, Horten Ho X-A research airplane, Horten Ho X-B transonic fighter, Horten Ho X-C supersonic fighter
*Handley Page 115, British research airplane
*Gluhareff “Dart” American project for ojival delta fighter in 1941
*Evolution of Morane French fighters between 1937 and 1943 (19 variants)
*Renard R-42, high altitude Belgian fighter
*Hawker P.1009 “Sea Phoon”, extended wings naval version of “Typhoon”
*”Panzerschreck” series of antitank German unguided rockets, including: “Panzerschreck” I, II, III and IV, “Fliegerschreck”, “Panzerblitz 2”, “Panzerblitz 3” and the launch systems used by the Focke Wulf 190 F-8.
*Jet Thunderbolt. A graphic study on the different projects to install a turbojet engine on the P-47 fighter.
*Caproni Ca 183 bis, Italian high-altitude Campini interceptor
*Evolution of the Ohka suicide bombers and their different launch systems. It covers Model 11, 21, 22, 33, 43A (Otsu), 43B (Kon), 53, submarine hangar, underground storage & rocket catapult, “Tenga” jet bomber, “Ginga” Mod. 33 with extended fuselage. Hypothetical reconstruction of the Model 11 “floatplane” used in Singapore as suicide boat towed by a Shinyo Type 5 motorboat and a story by John Baxter on the attack to the Panama Canal, made by 12 “Ohka” 43s launched from submarines.
Unknown #3 can be purchased for download for $16.
Nov 072009
Oddly, the New York Times does some actual reporting…
Sergeant Munley – a woman with a fierce love of hunting, surfing and other outdoor sports – bolted from her car, yanked her pistol out and shot at Major Hasan. He turned on her and began to fire. She ran toward him, continuing to fire, and both she and Major Hasan went down with several bullet wounds, Mr. Medley said.
For a number of reasons, I hope that the jihadist Hasan survives and recovers with his brain intact. The primary reason is so that he can be pumped for all the data that can be wrung out of him, to help future profilers find his fellow travellers in before they cause trouble. But secondly, I hope he lives so that he can be daily remined that he was taken down by a chick. With luck, this, and other fun excercies that the CIA could plan for him, will break him. Turn him into a pathetic, ruined wreck of a man, capable of little more than fear and weeping and shame. And then broadcast videos of that far and wide.
I suspect a video of him crying hysterically while being laughed at by female jail guards as he wears his little stained pink jammies covered in cartoon piggies would be both massively entertaining and useful propaganda. “Mess with us… and we’ll set out *women* loose on you.”
Nov 072009
Third in the series of reconstructed drawings from Paul Suhler’s book “From RAINBOW to GUSTO.” Here we have the “General Arrangement #2″ design, also known as “GUSTO Model 1.” This is Figure 19. Due to low image quality in the original, this particular drawing has a Source Grade of two: 
“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 GA2 drawing, simply click THIS LINK. You will be prompted for a username and a password. For the GA2 drawing, use these:
Username: the first word in the body of the text on page 58
Password: the first word in the body of the text on page 59
(Remember: Case Sensitive!)
The high-rez drawing also includes dimensions of the GA #2.
Up next: Figure 45, Kelly Johnson’s first Archangel concept drawing.