So here I am minding my own business this morning when I hear an aircraft fly overhead. But it was an odd-sounding one. I go outside and see…. this:
I can only assume he’s out looking for rocketninjas in the volcanic craters.
A freakin’ gyrocopter. BAH! What’s next? Jetpacks?
Once again, this is clearly discrimination, a result of massive wealth inequality in America. Where’s my ObamaGyrocopCare? Redistribute some of that aviation *my* way!
Apparently I was wrong. It seems that babies just drop right out of ya.
Preconception-destroying video at the link.
On a live TV broadcast, a Greek “Golden Dawn” party (National Socialist) member and Minister of Parliament physically assaults a deputy of the Syriza party (“Coalition of the Radical Left”) and one from the Communist party.
This is why Greece is doomed.. it seems they have chosen to be represented by a pack of idiots. That they have chosen to elect people who represent demonstratably failed ideologies tells me that perhaps the EU should cut its losses. Maybe sell Greece to Turkey or something.
Designed in April of 1962, this NASA-Marshall Future Projects Branch design for a space station was to serve as both a scientific research facility and as an orbital launch facility (OLF). The research station concept is straightforward enough, but the OLF is more interesting.
At the time, it was just accepted that by the end of the decade Apollo would have proven successful… and was to have been merely the first step in the conquest of space. Lunar bases and missions to Mars would have followed soon on the heels of the Apollo program. To support these expected missions, the OLF would have served as a construction facility in space. Unlike many later orbital construction facilities, this OLF would have a telescoping hangar, providing a long cylindrical shield to protect the spacecraft and those working on it from excessive sunlight and micrometeoroids. Additionally it would provide a controlled lighting environment.
The facility would be launched in two components, each on a Saturn C-5 and both initially unmanned. The scientific research base would have a 30 kilowatt nuclear powerplant, and would be made from a Saturn S-IC liquid oxygen tank. The OLF would similarly use an S-IC LOX tank as a basis, and would dock to the scientific base once on orbit.
A 10-man crew would be needed for orbital launch operations, and a further 15 for the scientific base.
Scientific lab with reactor extended.
Diagram of assembled orbital launch facility
Scientific lab
Orbital Launch Facility
It has been illegal for your average American to own a fully automatic weapon since the 1930’s, due to the manifestly unConstitutional National Firearms Act. There are only two legal ways around this:
1) Getting a federal firearms license, which is not only expensive but it also deletes your 4th Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure
2) “Bump Fire” tricks.
“Bump Fire” refers to techniques or gadgets that let you simulate high cyclic rate full-auto firing. You still only get a single round fired per trigger pull, but the trick is that the gun rocks as you fire, and the result is that it slams back and forth in your hand and thus your finger functions the trigger quickly. This can be accomplished – sometimes – by simply holding the gun loosely. There are small spring loaded widgets that you can buy that fit up against the trigger to help you do this. Sadly, bump firing might be a dandy way to blow through a whole lot of ammo in a hurry, but it’s not been a good way to fire “full auto” while actually aiming at a target. In order for bump firing to work, you pretty much have to fire from the hip; makes for entertaining Hollywood movie-crap, but it’s a terrible way to do anything productive.
But it seems this problem may have been solved. The “Slide Fire” replaces the buttstock of an AR-15 or an AK-47; the weapon can slide back and forth within the stock. When the trigger is pulled, the gun slides back due to recoil; the hand holding onto the forestock pulls the gun forward, which brings the trigger back up against the trigger… rinse and repeat. You control rate of fire, and number of rounds fired, by controlling the forestock.
It sounds dodgy, but from the looks of it, it seems to work. It’s not as good as an optimized fully automatic weapon, but since it’s only a $370 or so additional cost to a $700 or so gun, and a fully automatic AR-15 would run you well over ten grand *and* cost you your soul, if you really feel the need to throw a hell of a lot of lead downrange in a hurry, this seems like a decent way to go about it.
[youtube wMQe3zBuNRY]
Obviously this would seem to be the sort of product that the BATF would love to ban, but their basis for doing so would be dubious since the firearm operates on the basis of one shot per trigger pull. It’s just lets you pull the trigger *really* fast.
The Democrat attempt to recall Wisconsin governor Scott Walker failed miserably yesterday. The Dems and their fellow travelers took it with all the grace I’ve come to expect:
“Kill Scott Walker”: Angry libs flood Twitter with death threats after Wisconsin recall defeat
And the violence isn’t directed solely at Walker and right wingers; the Dems are also directing violence at other Dems for disappointing them:
[youtube 2yGYfFQjybs]
No cause of death yet, but he was 91, so I guess I can cut him some slack…
Because sometimes you need to see this stuff. Here are two galaxies that have actually collided. Galaxies are by far mostly empty space… stars are tiny nuggets only a few hundred thousand or maybe million miles wide, separated by distances measured in lightyears. So when galaxies collide, they go right through each other. But the gravitational influences can cause galaxies to be greatly distorted or just plain torn asunder.
Info on Arp 273.
And downloadable images, including some of Truly Hugenormous Resolution.
It hit a bridge and did some minor damage to the foam on a wingtip.
Note: Image not entirely relevant.
