… at least as portrayed by the North Korean government. I make no promises that the translation is accurate. It sounds almost like parody.
Mar 102013
Mar 102013
Another photo (via the NASA HQ History Office) of the Lockheed STAR Clipper. This was an early stage-and-a-half concept with a reusable orbiter and expendable propellant tanks. Vastly more info on this is available in APR issue V3N2.
Mar 102013
It’s sad that this sort of law actually seems necessary.
‘Toaster Pastry Gun Freedom Act’ proposed in Maryland
Schools used to have shooting clubs. Now kids get suspended for chewing Pop-Tarts into L-shapes.
Mar 102013
Mar 102013
SpaceX did another hop with their Grasshopper vehicle Thursday, this time to 80 meters and with a cowboy as a passenger.
[youtube 2Ivr6JF1K-8]
Mar 102013
Mar 102013
A common irritant while driving is the jackhole who pulls right in front of you… only to immediately slow down. In the US, this is generally a problem of the jackhole in question being dimwitted or oblivious, but in Russia it seems that this may be due to the jackhole being drunk, or pulling an insurance scam. Thus dashcams prove their utility once again.
Now if you are going to pull in front of someone and slam on the brakes, you generally don’t want that someone to be driving a very large and heavy vehicle. Physics is not on your side in that case. If you are, conversely, driving a very large heavy vehicle and someone cuts you off and slows down, you may of course be tempted to slam on your brakes… or then again, maybe not. Meet Alexei Volkov:
‘The Punisher’ takes vengeance on Russia’s bad drivers
[youtube FG1qcIAFSwg]
A bunch of his vids are HERE.
Mar 092013
A Lockheed painting of the CL-840, an attack helicopter proposed for the Advanced Aerial Fire Support System contest of 1964-66. This design won, and was built as the AH-56 Cheyenne. Sadly, the design was more advanced than the technologies required to support it, and it was cancelled after only a few prototypes were built.
Mar 092013
Defense Distributed is selling 30-round AR-15 magazines for $50 a pop. Not especially newsworthy, except that these magazines are 3D-printed. I have no idea if they are any good or not; they look reasonably rugged, if somewhat lacking in detail. Also lacking springs, which you provide.
Why would someone buy one of these? Collectors value, perhaps… the very first commercially available 3D-printed firearm magazine.
And ya gotta love the name.
Cuomo Mag
Mar 092013
HERE is a story about how Hungarian and Romanian immigrants (mostly Roma, it seems) have taken over a chunk of a German town and turned it into a hellhole, and how the mayor of that town is warning Britons to beware the same thing happening there.
This is an article from the Daily Mail, so it’s accuracy can be reasonably questioned. Even so, there seem to be two primary possibilities:
1) It’s basically accurate. And thus “gypsies” are pissing off the Germans.
2) It’s not accurate, and yet German sentiment is getting stirred up against the Gypsies.
Either way… this will not end well.
One wonders if this sort of thing – driven by EU rules that permit easy relocation from one nation to another – might tear the EU apart as nations realize that getting swamped with immigrants who refuse to assimilate but nevertheless draw welfare benefits is economically and culturally disastrous.