The San Diego Air and Space Museum has posted an old film about the little-remembered Ryan X-13 VTOL testbed:
[youtube FdDHcOgzP8M]
Aug 082014
Aug 072014
Something I’ve wondered about over the years is what happens to your online activities when you die. Obviously you’ll stop posting selfies and Twitter updates, but websites will keep running until they get shut down due to lack of payment… and perhaps not even then, depending on how bad the bureaucracy might be. But how about sites like mine that take orders? If I get mashed by a Mack truck driven by a drunken texting jihadi, a lot of people might continue to try buying stuff long after I’ve stopped filling orders.
And then there’s stuff like today. I checked my email and found this notification from Linked in:
Bllleeeeuuurrrrgghh.
Aug 072014
I’ve got the August rewards just about ready to go. When I make them available for the current Patreon supporters, the July rewards will be replaced. So if you are interested in the July items, time runs real, real short.
1) A large format diagram of the B/J-58, a Convair concept for a two-engine tactical B-58
2) A PDF document, “Manned Space Stations and Alternatives” which covers Gemini and Dyna Soar-based small MOL-like station concepts, and includes info on the Gemini satellite inspector/interceptor
3) Two CAD diagrams, one of the McDonnell-Douglas Model 192 ISINGLASS hypersonic rocket-powered recon platform, the other comparing the Titan IIIC with the Titan IIIC/Dyna Soar and the Titan IIIM/MOL.
If you’d be interested in helping me dig up and release this sort of obscure aerospace historical material, or if you want to get in on the rewards, please consider joining my Patreon.
Aug 072014
There is a lesson here. Several, probably. One is that power corrupts. Another is that people with *lots* of power should probably wield it wisely, lest they give those with lesser power the notion that unwise wieldature of power is just fine.
Cop: We don’t follow Constitution because Obama doesn’t
“Obama has decimated the friggin’ constitution, so I don’t give a damn,” says Recine, a retired Franklin cop. “Because if he doesn’t follow the Constitution we don’t have to.”
Aug 072014
As of about mid-day, the news on Buttons is that he has been X-rayed but nothing of consequence was seen. This largely precludes “blockage” as a problem, but it leaves open:
1) An x-ray-invisible string in his intestines
2) An ulcer, which would apparently also explain his symptoms
Next up is an endoscope. Hopefully I’ll hear back by the end of the day.
The vet also reported that he has never before encountered a cat as mild mannered and friendly as Buttons, which fact I can confirm.
And because if there’s anything the internet is short of, it’s cat videos… so here’s a video of Buttons yesterday before we went to the vet.
[youtube -umFi4weE-w]
LATE AFTERNOON UPDATE: He’s been endoscoped, and they found… nothing. When the vet called they were in the process of force-feeding him, to see if he can keep it down (he refused to eat any food on his own). Tomorrow morning first thing they will put barium down his gullet and xray again, to see if it’s going through or if there is some blockage that doesn’t otherwise appear on X-ray.
His stomach looked good, no blood, no ulcers, no foreign bodies. His blood checks normal for white blood cells, so his bowels aren’t perforated. At this point they’re starting to get stumped, and have three working hypotheses:
1) A string in his intestines. This hypothetical string is not balled up into a plug (that would show up on the earlier X-ray), but is strung out and causing irritation, though not yet noticable physical damage.
2) Some undefined bowel inflamation
3) Some delayed reaction to the steroid shot he got a few weeks back to deal with his fur-itch.
Starting to get into “I dunno” territory here.
Aug 072014
Whoa.
[youtube FKXOucXB4a8]
Aug 072014
Rick Wiles: ‘Ebola Could Solve America’s Problems With Atheism And Homosexuality’
Errrrmmm…
Ebola could solve America’s problems with atheism, homosexuality, sexual promiscuity, pornography and abortion. … If Ebola becomes a global plague, you better make sure the blood of Jesus is upon you, you better make sure you have been marked by the angels so that you are protected by God. If not, you may be a candidate to meet the Grim Reaper.
A few thoughts occur:
1) If Ebola becomes a global plague, having the blood of *anybody* on you is probably not a very good idea.
2) If Ebola becomes a global plague, thinking that your religious beliefs and/or morality will supernaturally protect you is probably a dandy way to make sure that *you* are selected for deletion from the gene pool.
Aug 072014
I would pay real money to witness the C-99 take off. Sadly… not really an option, unless my Patreon expands a little more than it seems likely to, and I can afford to develop a C-99 of my very own from scratch…
[youtube I4-YgrksFbs]
Aug 072014
Heh:
[youtube NMpZrta2Cwc]
Aug 062014
A 1963 General Dynamics film about the EMPIRE program (early manned interplanetary missions), starring Krafft Ehricke. Included are a lot of artists concepts that I haven’t seen before, or have only seen poorly reproduced before. Includes a color version of the Mars lander illustration I posted a few months back, numerous illustrations of manned interplanetary craft and several paintings of the NEXUS SSTO super-booster. It also includes Ehrickes trademark optimism about the schedule for manned space exploration… humans to Pluto by 1995, for instance.
[youtube tPVAMVjk0bE]