Attempts at Milky Way photography have been stymied the last few days due to clouds. The moon finally goes down, and the clouds come up. Sigh…
Jul 122012
Jul 122012
This is a pretty neat photo.
Ship Photo of The Day – USS Harry S. Truman Going Tokyo Drift
A higher rez is HERE.
Jul 112012
From the NASA HQ history office, a photo of a Martin Marietta model of the HL-10. The ID plaque on the base of the model reads “NASA HL-10 LIFTING ENTRY RESEARCH VEHICLE,” but the interior clearly shows that this design was intended for transportation of crew, and possibly cargo, to space.
More info, including several diagrams, HERE.
Jul 102012
Yesterday I procured a dozen more transparencies, and then started turnign them into actual cyanotypes. And what I learned: “art” more often than not turns into “meh.” Line drawings come out great, but paintings… not so much. The NERVA from the very first batch is indeed pretty awesome, but others are pretty hit and miss.
I had planned to procure another dozen or so today, but circumstances prevented me from heading out, so I’ll try again tomorrow. And when I’ve got those up and running, I’ll officially open ’em up for sales. I’ll mail them flat in large padded envelopes, with just a fixed postage fee for up to a dozen prints… $6 US/Canada, $12 elsewhere. A bit pricey, but that’s basically what it amounts to. So it’d be cheaper to sell more at once than one at a time, so I want to have a fair number for y’all to pick from.
The Convair VTOL jet and the Mercury capsule are, IMO, the clear winners from the latest batch.
Jul 102012
NYC mayor challenges apartment builders to think smaller
As a followup to his not-at-all-governmental-over-reach program of trying to ban the sale of more than 16 ounces of soda, NYC Mayor Bloomberg wants architects to start designing apartments of 275 square feet.
They will be about four times the size of a typical prison cell and about one-fortieth the size of the mayor’s Upper East Side townhouse.
Pretty much says it, right there. Who the hell would want to live like that? Oh, wait…
One couple paid $150,000 for a 175-square-foot (16-square-meter) studio in Manhattan in 2009
Ye gods. That’s on the same order as the cost of my house, workshop and several *acres* of land.
Jul 092012
Wow.
Pakistan shuns physicist linked to ‘God particle’
There is just so much wrong here. In short, the Pakistani government – and culture – are willing to lobotomize themselves to erase the merest possibility of something not quite up to their religious standards. They are stuck in the same mindset that shackled the West until the Renaissance started people thinking that the Church might be worth challenging.
Jul 082012
This looks like it might be interesting:
[youtube iWHXTTgQrPk]
Jul 082012
It looks like the SyFy Channel has only one new science fiction show in the works, “Defiance,” about the aftermath of an alien invasion of Earth that results in Earth being essentially repaved. Best as I can tell, this will be the *only* science fiction show on the network, once “Eureka” is gone. “Alphas,” “Warehouse 13,” and such are only tangentially science fiction; the rest of the network is littered with reality shows, friggen’ ghost hunters and wrestling.
“Defiance” looks like it’ll be an impressively expensive show. Couple that with the complete lack of a built-in audience, such as Battlestar Gallactica and Stargater Universe had, and I expect that “Defiance” will be a short-lived series. And then SyFy will have no sci-fi.
It looks like down the line SyFy has a few other actual sci-fi shows in the works… “Rewind,” which looks like a retread of “Seven Days;” “High Moon,” which is about, of all things, lunar mining; “Defender,” about a starship in trouble (sounds vaguely familiar); “The Family,” about aliens hiding on Earth (lemme guess: Deep Space 90210). And that’s it, buried in a sea of magic, ghosts and reality shows. And these few sci-fi shows are probably not only a few years out, chances are good they’ll simply fail to get produced.
Jul 082012
I’ve decided to go ahead with the cyanotype “prints.” I currently have only a relatively small stash; I’m out of paper and will need to pick up some more. I will sell them for $10 each… and a few specific pairs for $17.00 each (the two 10-meter Orion prints, the two Republic Mach 25 prints, eventually the two 4000-ton Orion prints, a few others). The only real question mark at this time is shipping. Shipping rolled would be safest, but the paper is pretty thick and would take a definite set rolled up for a few days. I’ll try to find a reasonably affordable flat-mailing alternative.
Tomorrow I’ll get not only more paper, but more transparencies and hopefully some definition on shipping. And then… let the commercialism begin! Since this is, as was pointed out to me, a very “hipster” form of art, you’ll be able to get in early and tell your friends and acquaintances that “I bet you’ve never even heard of them.” Then when these are world famous, you’ll be able to tell people that “I was into them before they were cool,” and then mutter something about “sellouts” or some such…
Jul 082012
Sometimes you can tell that a book or an article s going to be Not Quite Right by subtle hints revealed in the first few sentences. Take, for instance: A perfect steakhouse experience? Elusive. This is a foodie-snobbery article in the Washington Post. How can you tell it ain’t gonna be right? Here’s the first paragraph:
Eleven years ago, with Washington savoring a boom in steakhouses, I grazed through nearly 20 to determine if there was a best among the lot. While I found plenty to admire, at the end of a three-month steak streak, no single player delivered the Perfect Steakhouse Experience formed by memorable meat, first-class sides, an inviting backdrop and distinguished wine service.
“Distinguished wine service?” At a steak house?
Oh, but it gets better:
A full-press steak experience, including cocktails, wine, tax and tip, runs about $150 a person.
If you’re spending $150 a person on a steak dinner, YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG.
On the other end of the spectrum from this sort of inane elitist “I bet he’s an Obama supporter” food snob: Long-awaited Olive Garden receives warm welcome, where you get a restaurant review for a restaurant that people can actually afford, written by a normal person with normal tastes. And as such, it goes viral… not because it’s crazy, or stupid, or hilariously written… but because it’s normal.