Feb 042015
 

Multiple Passengers Killed in TransAsia Airways Bridge Crash

Notice the taxi-van getting clipped. The driver apparently suffered some head injury, on the order of a concussion.

A video from the same dashcam, with excessive Action News Chyron Gibberish plastered all over the screen…

UPDATE: Here’s  somewhat better version of the footage, still with added nonsense:

Here’s the dashcam from the next car back:

 Posted by at 2:10 am
Feb 042015
 

During the development of the Saturn I, a full scale developmental unit was suspended from wires within a special facility at NASA-Marshall and subjected to mechanical shaking to see if the vehicle could withstand the vibrations expected during launch. The first stage was an actual Saturn I first stage, while the second and third stages were water-ballasted simplified versions.

missiles and rockets nov 16 saturn shake

 Posted by at 1:10 am
Feb 032015
 

Jordan recently said that if ISIS killed the Jordanian pilot they’d captured, Jordan would in turn start executing ISIS prisoners. Well, guess what:

ISIS hostage burned alive

Video and stills appear to show a Jordanian military pilot being burned alive while confined in a cage.

This seems to have been done perhaps a month ago, so all the negotiations since then were fraudulent on ISIS’s part. I would not want to be an ISIS prisoner in Jordanian custody tonight.

Jordan, unlike many Arab nations, is armed with a whole lot of *American* weapons. So it’ll be interesting to see if Jordan decides  to introduce them to ISIS directly.

 Posted by at 4:14 pm
Feb 032015
 

Russia May Slap Germany With A $4.5 Trillion Lawsuit For Nazi Atrocities

Yeah. That’ll work.

If you want some damned entertaining reading, take a look here:

http://izvestia.ru/news/582576

If’n you don’t read Russian, Chrome will auto-translate, or you could use Google translation. But in short, some Russian politicians are trying this tactic not because they think they’ll actually get a dime out of Germany, but because they’re pissy that Germany is levying sanctions on Russia for is war of conquest in Ukraine.

Can’t wait until the Poles, Finns, Czechs, Hungarians, etc. line up their lawyers to sue Russia for the nightmares the USSR inflicted on ’em.

 Posted by at 2:56 pm
Feb 032015
 

Fatal Denver plane crash was likely caused by pilot taking selfie, say investigators

“The GoPro recordings revealed that the pilot and various passengers were taking self-photographs with their cell phones and, during the night flight, using the camera’s flash function during the takeoff roll, initial climb, and flight in the traffic pattern,” the board said in the report released Friday.

That’s just… dumb. Regardless of whether the pilot can answer the Riddle of Steel, I’m pretty sure Crom will throw him off Valhalla and laugh at him.

 Posted by at 2:15 pm
Feb 022015
 

I’ve started posting my diagrams created for APR, USBP, etc. over on “Deviantart.” Unless I get bored and wander away (gosh, what are the chances of *that*), the plan is to eventually post virtually *all* of my diagrams, at a rate of about one a day.

Check it out:

scott-lowther.deviantart.com

Feel free to tell anyone you care to tell.

 Posted by at 9:51 pm
Feb 022015
 

So about six weeks ago Buttons got some minor surgery to examine what the vet thought might be a tumor but turned out to be a cyst. A few days ago I noticed an almost identical lump… this time one the right side of his jaw rather than the left as before. so today I took him back to the vet to get it dealt with. Didn’t seem like much of a thing except that it was causing him apparent pain.

So in the grand tradition, the vet took one look at him today and wondered if Buttons’ seemingly constant series of little illnesses was due to feline leukemia or feline AIDS. So a simple drop-off to take care of a simple job turned intoa  whole day of wondering about not only Buttons but all the other cats here. Feline leukemia and AIDS are fatal diseases and apparently fairly easily transmitted, so having one cat with one of them would mean chances are *really* good that the others would as well. So… fun day of hair-pulling. Fortunately tests came back negative. But he still wound up getting cut on and stitches.

I remain impressed by the feline ability to shrug off insults to their bodies. When I brought him home, he was promptly as friendly and affectionate as ever. And then he slept some.

WP_20150202_012

A few days ago:

WP_20150126_012

 Posted by at 7:29 pm