Oklahoma

 AARRRGH, blather, news  2 Responses »
May 202013
 

Oklahoma is currently getting trashed by very, very large tornadoes (two miles wide). It’s an ongoing disaster, so if you are in the area, find a hole, dive in and pull it in after you.

Most of the time, reporters covering such stories are entirely too gleeful over the mayhem they get to cover. But sometimes not. A few minutes ago, CNN was carrying the feed from the local KFOR station, with reporter Lance West reporting over the phone. The Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, OK, has been flattened; there was thought that the school might not have had any kids in it at the time. But Mr. West  was reporting from the scene, and said that there were at least 75 kids in the school when it got hit, an that the school ha collapse upon them, rescue operations underway. And then he lost it. The anchors back at the station took over, but Mr. Wests anguish managed to come through.

It’s not good. And yet it’s oddly refreshing, or at least cathartic, when a reporter loses his cool at a scene that would make most regular people lose it.

If anyone finds that clip on Youtube, clue me in.

UPDATE:

[youtube 5crYKhvRylk]

[youtube Ss-YNyVO81A]

A human emoting can bring a distant disaster close to home. Herbert Morrisons reporting on the Hindenberg disaster will be heartbreaking for as long as there are people who speak English.

[youtube 2YY0xw5r1ro]

 Posted by at 3:09 pm

Big G

 art, history, projects, spacecraft  11 Responses »
May 192013
 

One pre-Shuttle idea  for a space logistics vehicle was the “Big Gemini.” This would have used portions of the Gemini re-entry capsule as  the nucleus around which a much large conical capsule would be built. The adapter section would be done away with and replaced  with a conical section (with a geometry matching and extending the Gemini capsules) to house a variable number of passengers. A large number of “Big G” configurations were put forward; generally these were to be launched atop the Saturn Ib, but Saturn V and Titan IIIc options were also studied.

big g

 Posted by at 4:06 pm

Incoming Idiocracy

 blather, dumbassery, Hmm..., news, science, ಠ_ಠ  9 Responses »
May 182013
 

Researchers suggest Victorian-era people more intelligent than modern-day counterparts

In short: duh.

The metric used was a test of reaction time to visual stimuli. From 1884 to 2004, the reaction time for men rose from 183 milliseconds to 253 milliseconds; for women, 188 milliseconds to 261 milliseconds.

To me this would seem to be a pretty fast change via evolution, but then, the Victorian era was more or less the beginning of the era of both modern medicine and the nanny state. Both of those will lead to the dumbing down of mankind by the simple expedient of protecting people from their own stupidity. I shudder to imagine what the future holds when the effects of Internet addiction and the like are added in.

 Posted by at 7:07 pm

Marvin

 cats, photography  2 Responses »
May 182013
 

Marvin is still cruising along. Oddly, her ears are going bald. Buh?

If you were a Marvin donator, a  bunch of new photos were uploaded to Dropbox for you in the “individual Marvin photos” folder.

Img_6668 Img_6693

 Posted by at 11:36 am

Devils Slide

 history, photography, Utah, ಠ_ಠ  1 Response »
May 172013
 

An interesting geological phenomenon east of Ogden, Utah. Photographed a week or so ago on my way home. What you’re seeing is the result of land that has been uplifted in such a way that previously horizontal terrain has been tipped about 90 degrees; horizontal layers are now vertical. The layers are of differing hardness; two hard layers sandwich a softer layer, which has been scooped out via erosion. The result is a pair of walls or tracks that form what would be just about the most uncomfortable and un-fun kids slide imaginable.

The Utah Department of Transportation put a viewing area  on the opposite side of the road, allowing pretty good views of the thing. But someone also strung  phone lines right in front of it, planting a utility pole right next to it. Gah.

Img_6364 Img_6370

 Posted by at 9:58 pm

Those Were The Days

 blather, Crazy, Forward!, history, I'm from the government, politics, ಠ_ಠ  5 Responses »
May 172013
 

Yesterday a friend of mine mentioned that she had gone into a store that was playing the song “Those Were The Days” by Mary Hopkin, and that the song had become lodged in her head. Because this is what one does, I looked up the song on Wikipedia. Of all the factoids the article has, by far the most bizarre was this:

On Christmas 1975, the President of Equatorial Guinea, Francisco Macías Nguema, had 150 alleged coup plotters executed in the national stadium while a band played Those Were the Days.

Errrr…….

The Wiki article  on Nguema has a little more info:

During Christmas of 1975 he ordered about 150 of his opponents killed. Soldiers dressed up in Santa Claus costumes executed them by shooting at the football stadium in Malabo, while amplifiers were playing Mary Hopkin’s “Those Were the Days”.

Errrr…..

Africa seems to be the place to be if you are a weirdo-bizarre nut with delusions of divinity. In the US, the best you can do is sic the IRS on your political opponents.

[youtube gVdOQvx379Y]

 Posted by at 9:17 am

Lunar Impact

 awesomeness, Hmm..., news, science  No Responses »
May 172013
 

Bright Explosion on the Moon

On May 17 a small rock hit Mare Imbrium and was detected visually. At ~40 kg and 56,000 miles per hour, the impact energy was about 5 tons TNT equivalent, and would have been visible to the naked eye.

I suspect that a similar impact on Earth would have been largely absorbed  by the atmosphere.

[youtube IYloGuUZCFM]

 Posted by at 8:04 am
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