Nuclear C-99

 aircraft, drawings, nukes, projects  4 Responses »
Jun 082013
 

A 1953 General Electric study for a Convair C-99 cargo plane modified with nuclear turbojet propulsion. The pusher-prop engines were removed from the wing and replaced with a 65,000-pound AC-2 nuclear powerplant within the fuselage. This was equipped with two separate jet engines, giving a total sea level static thrust of 35,500 pounds. Two additional conventionally fueled J77 engines were mounted in the wings for takeoff thrust. A lead and polyethylene shielded crew compartment weighing 20,000 pounds protected the crew, giving radiation doses of 0.5 roentgen per hour.

nuclear c-99

 Posted by at 6:38 am

Ethics debating point

 blather, news, science  8 Responses »
Jun 072013
 

Take this news item:

Early Down’s test ‘more sensitive’

A more accurate test for Down’s syndrome which can also be given earlier in pregnancy than current checks has been developed

… And marry it to the abortion debate.

One obvious result of finding out early in pregnancy that the fetus has Downs will be that the parents will be more interested in aborting the pregnancy.  It’s not 100% accurate, but in general those who most actively support making sure that abortion is easily available are left wingers of the type who also support “diversity.” But medical tests like this will lead to *reduced* genetic diversity by selective breeding.

What to do, what to do…

 Posted by at 8:29 pm

A Busy Night

 Hmm..., photography, spacecraft  5 Responses »
Jun 072013
 

Last night I set out to photograph the aurora. It was pretty faint, not much good came of that. However, right around midnight (plus/minus a few minutes) I happened to notice two satellites almost directly above, perhaps a bit to the east, travelling together. Anybody know of a way to figure out what they were? It’s not often one sees satellites flying in formation. These two were heading more or less south, so they were polar orbiting satellites. In the photo below, a third satellite is clearly visible; if you look close, you can see a fourth (clearly at higher altitude… fainter and much shorter trail).

tracks

 Posted by at 9:09 am

Run Boy Run

 blather, youtube  2 Responses »
Jun 052013
 

Here’s an imaginative little music video, “Run Boy Run” by Woodkid.

[youtube lmc21V-zBq0]

Certainly has a beat.

——————

And because Why Not: who else remembers “The Searcher?”

[youtube DQzyvD3nSng]

 Posted by at 10:28 pm

Your tax dollars at work

 dumbassery, Forward!, I'm from the government, news, politics, ಠ_ಠ  4 Responses »
Jun 052013
 

Secret Man Caves Found in EPA Warehouse

The EPA report is available as a PDF file HERE.

  • The warehouse recordkeeping system was incomplete and inaccurate.
  • The warehouse was filled with considerable amounts of unusable, inoperable and obsolete furniture and other items.
  • The warehouse contained multiple unauthorized and hidden personal spaces that included such items as televisions and exercise equipment.
  • Numerous potential security and safety hazards existed at the warehouse, including unsecured personally identifiable information (such as passports).
  • Deplorable conditions existed at the warehouse; corrosion, vermin feces, mold and other problems were pervasive.

Neato.

Why does the EPA have boxes of passports just lying around? Because frak you, that’s why.

 

 Posted by at 7:16 pm

Lockheed Over/Under SST

 aircraft, art, drawings, projects  1 Response »
Jun 052013
 

A late 1970’s/early 1980’s design for a supersonic transport from Lockheed included an unusual engine layout… two turbojets on the underside, two turbojets on the topside. This would certainly prevent shockwaves from the inlet spike of one engine from interfering with the inlet of another nearby engine, but it would also make the engines on the topside somewhat questionable during high-alpha (angle of attack) flight, such as takeoff and landing. Note that the drawing wa made with an early CAD program.

lockheed horizons scv sst lockheed horizons sst

 Posted by at 5:29 pm

Vellum blueprint update

 art, cyanotype blueprints, drawings  No Responses »
Jun 042013
 

Large format cyanotype blueprints on vellum are now a reality. The production techniques and hardware are in place; I’ve made a number of Saturn Ib, Saturn V, Dyna Soar, Super Hustler, X-24C, etc. prints. The only hitch at the moment is a labor intensive and damned annoying system of drying the prints. I need to locate large sheets of fiberboard or cardboard to press the wet sheets in while they dry to keep them from curling. This has worked well for smaller sheets (such as 18X24), now I need to scale it up to 24X72.

 

The large format prints look *spectacular.*

 Posted by at 8:00 pm

Egypt vs. Ethiopia

 blather, Crazy, dumbassery, news, politics, ಠ_ಠ  11 Responses »
Jun 042013
 

Seems a number of egyptian politicians are agitating for acts of war against Ethiopia to prevent the construction of a am across the Nile. As usual, the politicians are kinda dim… the dam is a hydroelectric dam. While the reservoir fills up behind it, the flow of the Nile would of course be reduced (or eliminated), but once filled, the flow of water would return to normal. The process of filling the reservoir nee to stop *all8 of the flow of the Nile; fill it over a period of years, and the flow interruption can be only a few percent.

Egyptian Politicians: Sabotage Ethiopia’s New Dam

 Posted by at 9:14 am

The next must-have Christmas gift sensation

 blather, Hmm..., humor, youtube  2 Responses »
Jun 032013
 

The Speech Jammer. In this particular case, a Smart Phone app that feeds your own words back to you with a split-second delay. The human brain just wasn’t evolved to handle this sort of sensory input, and the result is it turns you into a babbling moron. And without further ado, a feller trying to do some gun reviews while under the influence of a speech jammer:

[youtube oU9EGeMP5n4]

As used here, the jammer is something the speaker has to be involved in… he’s wearing the device. So it’s funny, but not terribly *useful.* To be useful, the jammer has to be something that someone *else* can turn on. And as it turns out, there’s a “speech jamming gun” under development:

[youtube e8O7_LK6at4]

Note that this video also includes some weapons-grade paranoid jibberjabber.

 Posted by at 5:26 pm
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