The sale’s over, and the FedEx guy just showed up with a pack of copies of the book: all the interior margin issues look to have been resolved, it looks pretty good. Lessons learned for the next release.
Mar 182011
Mar 182011
An article here:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/03/18/134597833/cosmonaut-crashed-into-earth-crying-in-rage?ft=1&f=1026
http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/03/18/134597833/cosmonaut-crashed-into-earth-crying-in-rage?ft=1&f=1026
Has the last, really unpleasant open-casket photo of Soviet Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov… and further down, an audio recording of his last words. Would any Russian-speakers be interested in translating?
The article (which, coming as it does from NPR, somehow fails to blame everything on Republicans) describes the forthcoming book Starman by Jamie Doran and Piers Bizony. Komarov seems to come across as a certifiable hero, while the Soviet governmental system comes across as a nightmare (again, surprising coming from NPR). Komarov apparently knew he was doomed *before* he even got in the capsule… and he only did so because if he had refused, the Soviets would have tossed in the backup cosmonaut, one Yuri Gagarin. Komarov’s last conversation (with Alexsei Kosygin) is described as him yelling that he’s been murdered.
Mar 172011
Short form: from 1970 through 2010, nuclear power (provides 9% of US power needs) killed zero Americans; wind power (which provides 0.7% of US power needs) killed 35 Americans.
Thus, if we replaced nuclear with wind, we can expect 450 deaths over 40 years… 11.25 per year. If we go to 50% wind power (the other 50% being, of course, solar power), then we can expect 2500 deaths over 40 years… 62.5 per year.
Anyone who supports wind power therefore wants to kill more than sixty people per year. Would YOU trust someone who wants to kill sixty people per year? My god, how many puppies must they be willing to murder in a year to prop up their dangerous scheme of filling our skies with whirling blades of death?
Computer simulation of the inevitable result of letting Big Wind run rampant: fire-breathing blademonsters.
Mar 172011
Today is the last day of MagCloud’s sale on the products they print, including my “Bell D188A” book:
http://www.magcloud.com/browse/Issue/157099
Currently on sale for $15.55.
MagCloud holds sales whenever they want to, and don’t seem to hand out too much advance notice, so who knows when it’ll come again. Your best option is to order a few hundred copies… for surely these will one day be every bit the collectors item as Action Comics #1.
Mar 172011
Via “Spacesuit of the Week,” here’s video of the AiResearch EX-1A being put through range of motion tests by its designer, Bill Elkins:
[youtube KhB9uWZZPFo]
Mar 162011
Another truth about engineers courtesy Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal:
And like the feller in the cartoon, I found that at no point in my education, career or post-career did anything I ever had to say about my engineering skills, talents, interests or abilities ever lead to a woman yelling anything remotely resembling “Take me now.”
See, that’s why so many engineers revere Montgomery Scott. He spent most of his time tinkering with a starship engine… and the rest of his time either getting smashed or scoring with the hot green chick (or both).
Mar 162011
In grew up not far from this bridge. It was forever ruining the days of truck drivers who didn’t pay enough damned attention to where they were or what they were doing.
Truck hits railroad overpass on Brady
Click the link for utterly awesome photo.
UPDATE: Photos of the Quad Cities truck-eating bridges: http://qctimes.com/collection_0b1b72cc-4fd7-11e0-b650-001cc4c03286.html%3FoCampaign%3Dhottopics#0
Mar 162011
Yes, Bambiraptor. That’s actually its name.
This display is at the Musuem of Ancient Life south of Salt Lake City.
Cute little bugger.
Mar 162011
The X-42 (1/48 scale) and X-15A-3 (1/40 scale) display models, nearing completion. They have been decaled and glosscoated; a little bit more surface work and some matte coating (Lesson Learned: matte coatings have added solventy goodness in them that can *eat* decals, so gloss coat ’em first) , and they’ll be good to go. The stands shown are also not the final stands, but are, err, stand-ins. Still, I thought they looked sufficiently neato that I wanted to gloat a little bit.
When these are done and out the door, I can take orders for more of the X-15A-3’s. Be advised, they are hand made in the USA by yours truly, not stamped out by Asian slave labor, so they’re a bit costy compared to those “genuine Philipine mahogany” wonders you see on ebay. Also unlike those craptacular Asian models, these will be made in *very* low numbers. I’d be astonished if I got to a dozen of any particular model.
Also: here they are next to a 1/24 X-20 Dyna Soar model I started quite some time back and set aside. YOU WANT THIS TOO.
Mar 162011
[youtube h6CcxJQq1x8]