Huh.

 blather, science fiction  12 Responses »
Jun 172013
 

When I was in college, twenty fargin’ years ago, I cranked out a lot of amateurish science fiction. Tried to get a few stories published, never did (because they sucked, I imagine). I wrote dozens of stories, short and long, probably a couple novels worth of crap. And from the time I left college until a few days ago, I wrote *maybe* ten pages of fiction, and not a complete sci-fi tale in all that time. This sudden shift in output never much surprised me… I lost my muse, you might say, near the end of my college career. My inspiration for creative writing was gone, and working for sociopathic bosses and in bureaucratic corporate dungeons for a number of years really didn’t nurture its return.

Then for reasons that escape me, last week I watched two movies I haven’t seen since the late 1980’s… “Pretty In Pink” and “Sixteen Candles.” Those sort of called up memories long forgotten; when these flicks came out in the mid 80’s, I was in the age group they were aimed at. And I remembered them as being damned funny; “SC” more or less still was, but “PIP” was just HOLY CRAP DEPRESSING. In both cases Molly Ringwald’s character happily winds up with the *scumbag* at the end. Hell, in  “PIP” she ends up at the prom (anybody else remember when you actually *cared* about the prom?) with the decent man who actually, honestly cared for her, and she promptly ditches him for the rich schmuck who consistently treated her like dirt. Gaaahhrrr. Stooopid adolescent females…

[youtube v1uRRcsEsnA]

Anyway, I think the combination of nostalgia for lost youth, and irritation at the realization that some of that youth was bound up in popular culture that celebrated Really Bad Decision Making, knocked a few rusty neurons loose in what I charitably refer to as my brain, with the end result being firing up Microsoft Word 1997 and banging out a complete 15-page story over the weekend. Admittedly, the actual story idea was two decades old; it had been left unscribbled for all that time, and basically forgotten until quite recently. I doubt I’ll do much with it. I printed out a draft and sent it to a friend; but unless the review is spectacular, I’ll probably just let it gather dust. Even so, it’s interesting what a good dose of reminiscence can do to your psychology. Speaking of which: this year is my 25th high school graduation anniversary. Huh. Yes. That makes me feel old.

I’m hoping that the urge to creativity will last long enough to let me make some forward progress on the Space Station V writeup. It has been stymied by writers block… even though it’s basically a technical description, it’s still creative fiction.

 Posted by at 8:46 pm

Gen X takes it in the shorts

 AARRRGH, blather, Forward!, Gah., history, Meh., news, politics, ಠ_ಠ  33 Responses »
Jun 162013
 

The Stunning Fall Of Generation X

Simply put, the weight of the recession fell squarely onto Gen X’ers, those born between the mid 60’s an early 80’s. We’ve lost about half of our wealth, while Baby Boomers and the like have made substantial gains. As the boomers continue to retire, this trend will only get worse, as more an more of them cease to contribute into the tax base and start drawing medicare and Social Security and the like, while the younger generations, a smaller percentage of the total populace than ever before, will be taxed harder and have to pay higher prices in order to support the older generations.

For centuries, the story of America has been, in part, that each generation does better than those who came before. This trend seems to be reversing.

Oh, goodie.

 Posted by at 9:54 am

Large format vellum cyanotypes AVAILABLE

 art, awesomeness, cyanotype blueprints, drawings, history, new products, news, projects, rockets, spacecraft  3 Responses »
Jun 152013
 

NOTE: The cyanotypes have been put on hiatus. They may come back later; if interested, send an email.

 

I have several large format vellum cyanotype blueprints available. These are hand-made items, not run off on a machine. They are made using old cyanotyping techniques and chemicals, on a series of home-made frameworks. the end result is a true royal-blue “blueprint” on vellum paper… with the same appearance and feel of a vintage blueprint.

I’ve made a few of each;  once these are sold out, further prints will be made on demand, so there might be a bit of a delay. The sizes given are of the whole sheet of paper; the diagram itself is a bit smaller, and can be trimmed if you wish. Prints will be shipped rolled.

In order to simplify things, there are two postage options: US and non-US. Doesn’t matter how many of these you get, the one postage fee is all you need to pay (so it makes sense to order a whole bunch of prints at once).
US postage: $6

—————————————————–

non-US postage: $14

—————

18X32 Early Dyna Soar layout diagram: $50.00

blue early x-20

—————-

18X24 German A-4 (V-2) rocket engine: $40

blue a4 engine

—————————————————–

18X24 German A-4 (V-2) layout: $40

blue a4

 

—————————————————–

~24X60 X-20 Dyna Soar layout: $100

A layout diagram of the final version of the Dyna soar, Model 2050E. Same size as scanned original (which was apparently a half-size version of the original original).

blue x-20

—————————————————–

————————–

24X37 Super Hustler (Mach 4 parasite bomber concept): $70

blue super hustler

—————————————————–

~12X73 Saturn V (1/72 scale): $75

blue sat v - x-24c - sat ib

—————————————————–

12×31 X-24C/L301: $30

blue x-24c

———————

~12×44 Saturn Ib (1/72 scale): $40

blue sat ib

—————————————————–

9×24 NERVA art: $20nervaartlarge

—————————–

24X24 X-20 Dyna Soar/Titan IIIc (1/100 scale): $45

dynatitan

 

—————————–

24×31 Wasserfall layout diagram: $60

wasserfalllarge

 

—————————–

12×42 NERVA diagram (two are shown below): $40

nervadiagram

 

—————————–

12X43 Medium V-2 (A-4) cutaway (two are shown below): $40

v2small

 

—————————–

18X62: Large V-2 (A-4) cutaway: $100.00

v2large

 

 Posted by at 2:59 pm

Solid Jupiter

 drawings, history, nukes, projects, ships, weapons  9 Responses »
Jun 152013
 

Before the Polaris missile was developed, the US Navy studied several approaches to using submarines to launch ballistic missiles. An early idea was taken directly from WWII Germany… store Jupiter IRBMs in special canisters, towed behind subs. These would be partially flooded whe  the subs got to the launch site; this would cause the canister to tip up 90 degrees. A few hours later, the liquid fueled Jupiter would be ready to launch. Additionally, there was some thought put into the idea of installing the Jupiter vertically within subs. But nobody much liked the idea of large liquid propellant missiles in submarines. So by April 1956 the idea then moved to solid propellant rockets designed to emulate the Jupiter, carrying the same payload on more or less the same trajectory. The missile would be fatter than the standard Jupiter, but also shorter. Still, at ten feet in diameter and 41 feet in length, it was a very large missile, and only four could be carried within the body of the sub and the greatly extended sail. Fortunately, within a few months the Polaris design came on the scene, a much smaller missile made possible by both a smaller warhead and higher energy density double-base solid propellant.

solidjupiter

Lockheed illustration.

 Posted by at 12:07 am

Ah, government priorities…

 AARRRGH, blather, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., I'm from the government, news, politics, ಠ_ಠ  1 Response »
Jun 132013
 

OK, the source here is “The Sun,” a British tabloid given to dubious journalism and photos of women in various advanced states of undress. That said, if this article is accurate, it is a rather disturbing indication of just how screwed up government-run healthcare can be.

The short form is: in Britain, the NHS (National Health Service) will give out taxpayer funded boob jobs. That is, they will give breast implants up to at least DD to women who want to be models. But at the same time, they have turned down a request for a breast reduction for a woman with 32H breasts who is in agony and had to give up her child-care job because of back pain.

That’s government for you. Do you want something for purposes of vanity? Sure, here’s a shovelfull of tax dollars (pounds, whatever).  Do you need something that will, if you get it, keep you a productive worker and off the ole? Naw, nothing for you.

(In the interests of openness, I neither want nor need larger or smaller boobs. And while I recognize that breast reductions can be a source of great sadness for straight men around the world, I also know that they are sometimes necessary. It’s one of the great crimes of nature that something so awesome can be a source of physical and emotional pain. Grrr. Stoopid reality. See, this is one more important reason why we need to become a spacefaring civilization just as soon as possible… so that lower-gravity living becomes a reality.)

 Posted by at 8:11 pm

The Blind Spot

 blather, Crazy, Hmm..., I'm from the government, news, politics, religion, ಠ_ಠ  4 Responses »
Jun 132013
 

So the NSA is listening to every damn thing. The government is spying on everybody all the time in order to collect data to prevent terrorist attacks. Well, ok… but if you are going to spy on everybody, shouldn’t you actually spy on, y’know, everybody? Maybe even devote a little extra attention to the places where potential terrorists might tend to congregate from time to time?

Obama’s Snooping Excludes Mosques, Missed Boston Bombers

 Posted by at 4:51 pm

Aw, jeez, not this Beck again…

 blather, Gah., Meh., news, politics, ಠ_ಠ  4 Responses »
Jun 132013
 

Today, Glenn Beck stated on his show hat he plans to break news within 24 hours that could take down the entire power structure of the government.

 Note that this was published *yesterday.* And yet, today CNN doesn’t seem to be running anything about how the entire power structure of the government has collapsed.

Anybody remember when Beck was actually relevant?

 

 Posted by at 11:29 am

Fire, steel and concrete

 blather, dumbassery, Gah., history, news, politics, science, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  1 Response »
Jun 132013
 

Even after all these years, 9/11 “Truthers” still piss me off no end. While you don’t hear much from ’em these days, there are still people who buy their BS. One of their more annoying claims was that the WTC couldn’t possibly have failed due to the jet fuel and paper and plastic fire because the combustion temperature was well below the melting point of steel. As I pointed out four years ago, steel structures don’t nee to actually melt in order to fail due to fire; they just need to get hot enough for the strength of the steel to reduce to the point where it can’t hold the load anymore.

This AM I had the TV on as background noise while I worked on various things. It was tuned to some “horrible things caught on video” shows. What caught my attention was an incident from 1998: a fuel tanker truck crashed underneath an overpass and caught fire. The overpass was a conventional steel structure clad in lots of concrete. The fuel burned hot and long enough that the bridge softened and collapsed. I tried to find the clip on youtube, could only find this crappy version:

[youtube 4n3xQkwfnHg]

 

Fiery Truck Crash Collapses Overpass

If a simple gasoline fire can cause an overpass to droop and then collapse, just imagine what it can do to a skyscraper.

 Posted by at 11:15 am
 Older Entries  Newer Entries