What kind of journalism is this?
So a French TGV high-speed (200 mph) train smacks into a cyclist and unknowingly turns him into a hood ornament and keeps going for 40 kilometers before it pulls into a train station and everyone sees what’s happened. And *nobody* had a camera? Pfff. Please.
Last week the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) stated rather nonchalantly that they will be hosting a press conference on Monday, March 17th, to announce a “major discovery.” Without a potential topic for journalists to muse on, this was as melodramatic as it got.
But then the Guardian posted an article on the subject and the rumors went into overdrive. The speculation is this: a U.S. team is on the verge of confirming they have detected primordial gravitational waves — ripples in the fabric of spacetime that carry echoes of the big bang nearly 14 billion years ago.
Lots of interesting info and discussion at the link. In short, *if* primordial gravity waves have been discovered, it’ll provide strong evidence in favor of inflation, the theory that the universe expanded by twenty-five orders of magnitude in the first tiniest fraction of a second after the Big Bang. Won’t find out if primordial gravity waves are the real discovery here until noon (eastern) tomorrow.
Huh. So, a little while back I posted some snippets of fiction I’ve scribbled out. I have been contacted by someone with some publishing experience, and we’re now in the process of hashing out a novel-length work based on my writings. If it all comes to pass, I will be responsible for overall plotting and getting the engineering, design and physics right. The other feller will be responsible for the actual *writing,* which he’s shown he’s really, really fast at.
So far, nothing has been signed, so nothing is certain (and thus details will be few). But it may be that later this year a novel will come out with my name on the cover. That’d be a hell of a thing.
I’m also slooooowly banging away on another sci-f yarn of my own. I had gotten some 40+pages into a story, realized it was going in a *really* wrong directions and scrapped more than 30 pages out of it and started re-writing it…. and then it just sorta fizzled out. Now working on another wholly different one. This time I think I’ll release the whole thing in some form or another, probably an ebook. I think it’ll be pretty good, but not as good as “Mass Disappearance.” I still think that one is really good, and I’m still miffed about it getting the brushoff. Oh well.
In short, a law can hold private home owners responsible for paying the bills for repairing churches built before 1536. This seems to mean that individual homeowners can be on the hook for up to £250,000 to fund the repair of a church, simply because they happen to be nearby.
Of course, there is similar insanity in the US. If an endangered species is found on your property, your right to modify your property as you see fit can be wiped out. The differences are important; not least being that if *you* find the endangered species first, you can whack it upside the head and bury it. If a British homeowner decides that the best approach to a massive repair bill for something he doesn’t own is to burn that something to the ground, someone will probably notice.
A General Dynamics/Astronautics film from 1962 describing the ORCA Weapon System. This was a seafloor deployment concept for solid-rocket ICBMs similar to the Polaris; the missile would be installed within a sealed watertight canister and lowered to the seafloor. There is would sit until called for by a sonar device. Upon receipt of a proper coded audio signal, ballast tanks would be filled with air and the canister would shoot to the surface. Upon breaching, the “nose” of the canister would jettison and the missile would launch out and, presumably, fly to the target.
[youtube YyJjfCpfnI4]
While the idea had some merit, including low cost compared to a Minuteman or a ballistic missile sub, it also had some pretty unfortunate problems. Not least of which is that the US Navy would basically just be dropping nuclear missiles on the seafloor. The canisters would probably have been fairly easily detectable via active sonar, so they would have to have been watched in some fashion to make sure nobody came along and simply strolled off with one. And the security would help to point out where they were. The Soviets and SPECTRE would be forever tripping over each other searching for these things (though that raises the notion of the US Navy making a show of lowering hundreds of these capsules… each of which turns out to actually be a miniature sub that wanders back to base. The Soviets would tear their hair out looking for missiles that don’t exist)
So, obviously, these were never fielded. But as the film shows, the concept was built and apparently successfully tested. In contrast to today where such a concept would get years worth of Powerpoints, here… they just went ahead and built a 1/4 scale functional model of the thing including a sizable “model rocket” that successfully launches from the canister upon breaching.
Shown here is a diagram of a 47,000 pound missile in a 108-foot-long capsule. There is considerable resemblance between this idea and the concept, almost 20 years prior, of V-2 rockets in capsules towed behind U-Boats for use against the US.
The rather artsy style of having three guys in business suits posing on the seashore seems a bit odd.
How many times have we seen some religious – or at least self-righteous – figure massively screw up and wish that some divine retribution would lay a smackdown on ’em? And how often are we disappointed? Sometimes, though, Odin comes through…
In short: Bishop Bobby Davis keeled over while being yelled at by his congregation for apparent infidelity.
Oops.
In this article about why there seems to be an especial love for cats in the geek community, a seriously good point is made… both about cats and, less obviously, about aliens: what motivates *you* might not motivate *them,* and what motivates *them* might not motivate *you.*
Cats are further removed from human thinking than dogs. Dogs, like humans, are pack animals that form clear hierarchies and understand dominance and submission. Those not at the top seek the direction and approval of the top, and sometimes seek to overthrow those at the top. Cats, on the other hand, are far more individualistic, generally speaking. In any well-run human household with dogs, you can tell that the dogs look to the Top Human for instructions when a new circumstance arrives. Cats? I’ve rarely noticed any of my cats looking to *me* when something goes wrong.
The article describes a long-term effort to stop two housecats from constantly fighting. A resolution was eventually achieved by the humans… but it was not a resolution that they could have foreseen. They only came to it by going to someone who had long studied cat psychology. Cats think *different* than most humans, and if you want them to behave themselves, you’d better have some understanding of just *how* they think different. Top of the list is… cats want to be left alone. When they want to be part of the team, it’s for their reasons and on their terms. The best line in the whole article, IMO:
If you wanted to convey to a cat that you come in peace, you’d do it by getting back in your spaceship and going home.
Writing about believable aliens could benefit from trying to understand terrestrial non-humans. This is something I am attempting in the next sci-fi story I’m currently scribbling away at in off moments (same set of characters that were in “Mass Disappearance”).
UPDATE: And so, the aloted time period ends, as does availability of these items. Huzzah.
I am making available, for a limited time, four bound volumes of large format diagrams. These are 11X17 line-drawing CAD diagrams produced by yours truly, bound in red pressboard report covers (why? because that’s classy, that’s why).
I had not planned on releasing these, but I had also not taken into account the fact that the IRS will very soon be demanding a sizable income tax check from me. Ooops. So, my sudden financial panic is your opportunity to get a limited edition item. They will be available until some time on Thursday, March 20. At which point they will be gone forever. Each one will be hand inscribed with the number of the edition (“#1 of 5” or “#4 of 7,” whatever the case may be), with the numbering done via order in which orders are received. Also with my hand-enscribbled initials. (Because who knows, I might be famous someday.)
What I have:
1) BoMi: the complete set of diagrams created for the “Bomber Missile” articles for Aerospace Projects Review issues V2N3 and V2N4, a total of about 45 pages. Includes the MX 2276 from 1955, up through the SR-126 studies from 1957, Brass Bell, Convairs RoBo, Super Hustler, FISH; and Boeing Model 728 studies, among others. $45
2) BWB: The complete set of diagrams created for the V1N3 APR article on Blended Wing Body aircraft, 29 pages. Contains many jetliner concepts, along with such oddities as the Lockheed CL-1201,a giant nuclear powered VTOL assault transport concept. $40
3) Model 2050E X-20 Dyna Soar: the diagrams from the not-yet released issue V3N4 APR article. These are the diagrams in their current state; some may change before I’m done with them. And some will not appear in the article. Includes not only the X-20, but also several proposed launch vehicles (including, I’m reasonably proud to say, the first publicly available accurate and detailed diagrams of the X-20 atop the Titan IIIc), layouts of test and operational versions of the DS with transstage, several small space stations designed expressly for DS servicing, and several high-energy transstage concepts. Also includes really quite good diagrams of the ASSET test vehicle and the X-37B spaceplane. 24 pages, $35
4) Nuclear Pulse Propulsion Starships: diagrams from my hopefully-forthcoming book on nuclear pulse propulsion. I really had not planned on releasing any of the diagrams prior to publication of the book, but what the heck: here are 14 pages showing several versions of the Enzmann Starship, the Dyson Starship, the BIS Daedalus, the Martin/Bond Worldships and the US Naval Academy “Longshot.” $30
Several of the X-20 and NPP diagrams have been formatted specifically for this release, and will not be otherwise released. And of course if I get mashed by a Mack truck or flattened by a meteorite, these diagram sets will be the only versions of these diagrams ever released. So, you know, there’s that…
Please note that since these are physical objects, postage is sadly required. There’s only two options for that… US and non-US. You only need to buy *one* “postage,” no matter how many of the diagram sets you buy.
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The premiere episode of the new Cosmos (ultra-brief review: promising… but the music? Meh) had only the briefest mention of evolution in it. But even that was too much for an Oklahoma Fox affiliate who *conveniently* ran a promo for the news right over that one little mention:
[youtube j8K-LrJkEDc]
There are many possible responses to that, but the two best come from this brief article about the issue on io9.com:
[youtube DI9ImScQGAo]
And…
