Airline travel to get even worse

 AARRRGH, aircraft, Forward!, Gah., news, politics, religion, ಠ_ಠ  9 Responses »
Dec 022014
 

U.K. Security Experts Worried About Terrorist Attack Around Christmas

Counterterrorism officials in the U.S. and the United Kingdom have been quietly discussing an outright ban on hand-carried luggage aboard airplanes for weeks now … discussing whether to require that electronics such as cellphones, iPads and computers be placed in the cargo hold with checked baggage

Neat. Hours and hours and hours crammed into a tiny seat next to smelly strangers, behind some jackhole who slams his seat back int your knees… and no laptop or book or DVD player or such for you. You sit there and stare at that seatback and go slowly insane.

Thanks Surt worshippers. Y’all suck and your goals suck.

 Posted by at 10:26 am

Reminder: Orion Flies Thursday

 awesomeness, news, rockets, spacecraft  7 Responses »
Dec 012014
 

Sadly, not *that* Orion, but the space capsule NASA has been working on for a decade or so.

NASA’s 1st Deep-Space Capsule in 40 Years Ready for Launch Debut

It will launch – unmanned – atop a Delta IV Heavy and will mosey on up to an apogee of 3,600 miles… out in the Van Allen belts, and further than any manned (capable) spacecraft has traveled since the Apollo program ended.

Don’t get too excited about NASA having a new ride anytime soon, though. manned flights probably won’t happen until 2021 or thereabouts. By that point Dragon capsules should be making regular flights to the Bigelow stations, with the last flights to ISS to bolt on the kiloton-scale self destruct mechanism.

 Posted by at 9:38 pm

The Beast of Turin

 blather, dumbassery, Gah., history, Hmm..., humor, news, ಠ_ಠ  5 Responses »
Dec 012014
 

When you think of 104 year-old automobiles, you generally don’t imagine engines that sound like this:

[vimeo 113158655]

This is a refurbished Fiat S76 from 1910/1911. Back in the day it generated 300 horsepower and a tops speed of 116 miles per hour. While I expect the current owners won’t be tryign to top that record, I’m just pleased they turned the thing on. imagine if, once a year, the Strategic Air & Space Museum in Nebraska or the USAF Museum in Ohio cranked up all six Pratt & Whitney R-4630’s. That’d be worth seeing.

————————————-

And on a vaguely related note, a McLaren P1 crashed in Texas a few days ago, the  first McLaren supercar to crash in the US. Now, y’all  know I’m not a 1%-hatin’ leftie, but I must admit to getting a chuckle out of somebody with way more money than sense discovering that enthusiasm is not a valid replacement for a proper understanding of and respect for the laws of physics. What makes the story about a $1.15 *million* car getting trashed even funnier are the two little factoids in the article title:

27-Year-Old That Crashed McLaren P1 Had Car For Less Than 24 Hours

A 27-year-old owns a car that cost more than most people will make in their entire lifetimes. Why do I have the feeling that Daddy actually bought it? Hopefully Junior’s next car will be a used 1977 Volvo. Maybe my first car (a used 1977 Volvo) is still floating around out there somewhere…

 Posted by at 9:05 pm

An entire sector of the economy to be robotified

 awesomeness, Hmm..., science  9 Responses »
Dec 012014
 

Along with burger flippers and taxi drivers, there’s this bit of good news regarding an entire class of career that just might go away:

Why Lawyers Could Become An Endangered Species By 2030

A new report is predicting that robots and artificial intelligence will dominate most legal practices within 15 years, leading to the “structural collapse” of law firms.

Well, that’s a hopeful sign, anyway. As a side benefit: if lawyers go away, within a generation or two there will be few to no lawyers running for office. Imagine that! A nation where the very people who profit from making the law complex are not writing the laws.

Of course, rely on someone to screw this up.

 Posted by at 6:47 pm
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