Feb 222012
 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints – also and more succinctly known as “the Mormons” – has a practice of baptizing dead folk into their religion. If memory serves, there’s something about the need to have your whole family – and that means ancestors too – baptized or else you don’t get the keys to the executive bathroom in Heaven, or something.Additionally, according to the Mormons you apparently can’t get into Heaven unless’n you’ve been baptized, so doing baptisms for the dead can obviously be seen as doing a nice thing for all those dead folks who are lurking about in limbo or purgatory or New Jersey or Hell or wherever it is the unbaptized go.

Nevertheless, some people have taken issue with this practice. You know, Jews and Catholics and such. For my own part, if someone wants to post-mortem baptize me into any religion… what would I care? Being dead and all, I kinda doubt that such things make any difference. Kinda like wondering whether the number “zero” cares if you suddenly decide to start calling it “Ralph” instead.

Still, some people are miffed about the whole thing. And so, you can now convert your favorite dead Mormons to “gay.”

All Dead Mormons Are Now Gay

Simply enter the name of your favorite dead Mormon* in the form below and click Convert! Presto, they’re gay for eternity. There is no undo.

*Holocaust victims are not eligible for conversion.

 Posted by at 10:53 am
Feb 212012
 

In 1963, supersonic transports were obviously just around the corner. One aspect of the concept that received a lot of study was the nose of the aircraft. The needs of low high-speed drag conflicted with the need for the pilots to see the runway; in the end, the vast majority of all large SST designs used “droop” noses. But alternate ideas were examined, such as this Lockheed concept where the nose rolled to the right, providing the pilot with excellent forward visibility (of course, visibility to the left would be fairly horrific).

 Posted by at 11:00 pm
Feb 202012
 

The North American Aviation P-82 was one of the stranger designs produced by the US in the years just after WWII. Originally designed as a straightforward welding of two P-51 Mustangs together to create a new long range fighter, the design as actually built shared almost no parts with the P-51. Below are a drawing and photo of a wind tunnel model of the XP-82 as tested by the NACA.

 Posted by at 7:22 pm
Feb 202012
 

Up first: man hibernates for two months. Maybe.

Swedish man survives two months in sub-zero temperatures by ‘hibernating’ in car, theory says

Second: Cloneburgers coming soon.

First ‘test-tube’ hamburger to be produced this year

Remember the Bruce Willis movie “Surrogates?” No, of course not. But DARPA does…

DARPA’s ‘Avatar project’ aims to give soldiers surrogate robots, make James Cameron proud

Aerial drones are becoming popular among organizations devoted to controlling humanity, from intelligence agencies to militaries… to animal rights activists. But as it turns out, noisy low-flying and slow drones may not be the best idea to keep an eye on people who are armed specifically to take out small, fast agile and intelligent flying objects…

Animal Rights Group’s Flying Surveillance Drone Is Shot Down By Bird Hunters

 Posted by at 11:30 am
Feb 202012
 

As a followup to THIS, my painter friend sent me a second camera phone photo of one of the paintings (which is not available). The second photo was taken under ultra-violet light; due to the paint used, the effect is pronounced.

Regular light:

Ultra Violet light:

While this painting is off the market… are paintings like this of interest?

 Posted by at 11:16 am
Feb 202012
 

Swapped out the modem today, and obviously, the new one fixed up the problem. So, feel free to send me lots and lots of money.

It’s interesting how irritating it can be to be cut off for only a few days. Still, I made some good progress with CAD diagrams for “Nuclear Pulse Propulsion;” the “Columbiad,” Ganswindt’s Weltenfahrzeug and Andersons “Orion Shall Rise” are all done, a bunch more underway.

 Posted by at 9:38 am