In works:
Oct 112013
Oct 102013
OK, anyone here young enough to *not* get the reference here (without Googling it)?
[youtube jbGNE_OYAW8]
Bonus anachronism:
[youtube Eb_PmzdNlTM]
Oct 102013
The second American in orbit has died, age 88. John Glenn is the last living Mercury astronaut.
Oct 102013
Another space-based anti-missile system contemplated for the Strategic Defense Initiative was the neutral particle beam. Specifics are exceedingly thin as befits a concept that sounds a *lot* like science fiction.
In practice, the system is a particle accelerator that ionizes hydrogen atoms, grabs them with massively powerful magnetic fields and accelerates them to near light speed. At the end o the weapon, extra electrons are stripped from the atoms, making the hydrogen atoms electrically neutral. This makes them largely impervious to natural and artificial magnetic fields, so they go where you aim ’em and can’t be readily shielded against. However, atmosphere rapidly scatters the beam, so space basing is really the only option. Unlike a laser beam, a mirrored surface would not faze a neutral particle beam. In fact, much of the damage would be done *within* the target, as the hydrogen atoms would penetrate some distance before being stopped and depositing their kinetic energy as heat.
Most of the artist impressions of NPB weapons that I recall showed U-shaped accelerators. By folding the accelerator in half, the spacecraft would be more compact. The energy requirements meant that nuclear powerplants were needed, but the power requirements – billions of Watts for a tiny fraction of a second – would make the power storage and supply issue entertaining. If that issue is cleared up, firing rates of perhaps thousands of shots per second would be possible.
Heres a terrible-quality image of unknown origin, but shows the basic idea:
Another illustration, credited to Los Alamos National Lab. Note that what at first glance appears to be solar panels is actually transparent; these are either the result of severe artistic license or depict not solar panels but radiators.
I’ve seen virtually nothing to judge the scale of these systems, but there were multiple references to NPB weapons being very large systems requiring numerous launches and considerable on-orbit assembly. Studies in the early 1990’s indicated that operational NPB weapons would probably not be feasible before 2025.
Oct 102013
American Bible scholar claims ancient ‘confessions’ prove story of Jesus Christ was entirely fabricated by Roman aristocrats
Short form: Some Guy has read the same stuff scholars have been reading for millenia (“The Jewish War” by Titus Flavius Josephus) and has concluded that Jesus Christ, and thus Christianity, was invented out of whole cloth by Roman aristocrats.
The argument goes:
First Century Roman #1: “Hmm. These Judean Jews are troublesome. Constantly rebelling, won’t pay their taxes. Every time we lay a military beatdown on them, they just get snippier. What to do?”
First Century Roman #2: “Hey, don’t the Jews have some sort of a legend about a forthcoming messiah? What say we invent one for them, one that says to ‘turn the other cheek’ and to pay your taxes?”
First Century Roman #2: “Sounds good, but won’t they notice that this guy doesn’t actually exist?”
First Century Roman #1: “Well, what if we say they guy has *already* lived and died and performed a bunch of miracles? It’s not like the Judeans can look up his death certificate on Google.”
First Century Roman #2: “Brilliant!”
First Century Roman #: “Brilliant!”
While an interesting hypothesis, from my reading of the admittedly Daily Mail article what I get is that the guy came to this conclusion by reading something you can buy on Amazon and seeing something that two thousand years of readers haven’t seen before. While it is of course possible that these confessions could have gone unnoticed by everybody for this long, it seems at best very unlikely. Sadly, we’ve reached a point (or, perhaps just as likely, we’ve always been there) where someone can pull something like this directly out of their keister and get taken seriously. Perhaps even get a recurring “guest expert” spot on a show on a reputedly respectable TV network.
Perhaps shockingly, the guy has a book.
Oct 082013
During Reagan’s “Star Wars” days, concept art of space-based anti-missile systems were cranked out on a fairly regular basis. Much of it was, most likely, pure artistic license with little basis in reality. However, some of the weapon artwork was clearly based on actual engineering, such as the Zenith Star and Brilliant Pebbles programs.
One uncertain design is shown in the painting below. It represents a space-based railgun, apparently capable of firing projectiles at high speed in rapid succession. While attributed to the DoD, the vehicle has “Boeing” painted on it. Unlike a lot of the designs, this one at least has a sufficiency of attitude control thrusters. Power for the system is probably nuclear, with the reactor on the far right, surrounded by conical radiators.
Seems it’d make a nifty display model.
Oct 082013
All the major structures have been in place for a while. Detailing is going to be a long progress…
Oct 072013
… I’m sure of it. It might be subtle and hard to find, but I have this feeling there’s an angle.
New Air Force cargo planes fly straight into mothballs
Short form: The USAF has spent more than half a billion dollars on an order for 21 C-27J Spartan cargo planes. Sixteen have been delivered so far. Of those, a dozen were sent straight to the Davis-Monthan boneyard. Five more are being built, and apparently are headed straight for the boneyard.
Oct 072013
The List: Unnecessarily Shut Down by Obama to Inflict Public Pain
Some highlights:
The American Forces Network (AFN) that provides American sports and entertainment programming to our troops stationed abroad, has been shut down. For some reason, though, AFN News will still broadcast news, just not any of the popular and fun stuff.
the D-Day memorial in Normandy has been barricaded.
Obama Closes Privately-Owned Hotel, Police Block Parking Lot
Park Service Ranger: ‘We’ve Been Told to Make Life As Difficult For People As We Can’
Obama Forces Residents Out of Private Homes
There is, it seems to me, a straightforward long-term solution to this sort of thing: eminent domain. About two years ago, the Utah state house passed a bill that would allow Utah to use eminent domain to seize federal land, though I believe the bill was struck down in the state Senate. This is a big issue in Utah, since the Feds “own” about 70% of the acreage, and this prevents considerable economic development. I believe it can now be argued that eminent domain can be used on a whole lot of Federal land and property, using the Kelo vs. City of New London decision.
Clearly, the FedGuv cannot properly utilize a lot of the land under its control. States should thus appropriate those lands under eminent domain for the purposes of furthering economic development. As described in the list at the top of the post, the Feds are shutting down places that are not only largely private, they are *profitable,* which is of course ridiculous when the issue is a lack of money. States should thus start with these lands, and seize them from the Feds. If the Feds then show up with armies of lawyers, it can be clearly demonstrated that the Feds have *too* *much* money to burn.
If there is one clear message to be learned from government shutdowns like this it is that the government is far, far too powerful. The functions being shut down are considered “non-essential.” Fine. Good. The Federal government should *not* be spending money on non-essential functions. If they are non-essential now, they should be non-essential when the shutdown is over, and should no longer be done by the FedGuv. Let private enterprise do them without interference. Let states do them.
It should be pointed out that while food and entertainment for active duty troops is being shut down, the golf course on Andrews Air Force Base is being kept open. You know, the course that Obama spends considerable taxpayer time at.
Oct 072013
Everybody hates on the NSA for taking eavesdropping to whole new levels. That’s fair. But we’ve also seen the irrational anti-Americanism cranked up as a result of that (with trolls of our very on on the comments section of this blog, for example). What makes it irrational? For starters, *America* doesn’t like what the NSA is doing. Further, the big-government types most responsible for setting the system up to support Big Brother spying like this are exactly the politicians that non-Americans most want to see win elections in the US. Furthest… hypocrisy. Delicious, nutritious hypocrisy:
Charges that Canada spied on Brazil unveil CSEC’s inner workings
That’s right, the ever-polite Canucks spying on Brazil. One can only imagine the spying and espionage being carried out by the likes of Britain, Germany and Australia.
As the Farkers put it:
“Ladies and gentlemen, Canada is making a play for empire.”