Sep 142015
 

The first Pax Orionis yarn was posted for patrons at the PS Patreon just a few days ago. Several people signed up afterwards, which meant that they got left out of the first issue. It’s perhaps something of a flaw or shortfall in the system. But I’ve worked out a simple solution: back issues. If you sign up for the Pax Orionis Patreon campaign, you can now purchase each “back issue.” Two dollars per issue is the current goign rate on the Patreon that nets you the story, the Technical Diagram and another bonus feature; that same price will get you those things in the back issue.

Currently there is only the one back issue available. But if you sign up for the Patreon campaign, you can read everything, right from the start. The stories are available as both PDF and EPUB (you get both versions).

becomeapatron

The first story released was “The Deadliest Catch, Part One,” and the first technical diagram is of the USS Orion, the first nuclear pulse flight test article in the Pax Orionis world.

PAX-0002-Model

—————-

On other Pax Orionis matters, here is the current listing of foreseen technical diagrams:

PAX_diagrams

And here is the current list of chapter titles, in rough chronological (story timeline order:

“The Box”

“Magicians”

“Orion Rises”

“The Blast from Jackass Flats”

“Weapons Test”

“Weapons Test 2”

“Mission to Mars”

“Knock knock”

“Uranium Exploration for Fun and Profit”

“The Burning Desert”

“Down in the Weeds”

“Deadliest Catch”

“Windows over the War”

“Hyperbolic Excess”

“The Hole”

“The Blue Dot”

“Things Blow Up”

“Leviathan”

“Every Man a King, Every Cabin Steerage”

“Sailing the Rocks”

“Over the Ice”

“Into the Deep”

 

 Posted by at 2:26 pm
Sep 142015
 

A video of a little girl scared of her own shadow:

Perfect fodder for political comparisons. I recommend:

  1. Hoplophobes askeered of an assault weapon around every tree
  2. Socialists terrified of successful businessmen
  3. Racists terrified of errbody what ain’t them
  4. Christian fundies spooked by gheys gettin’ hitched
  5. Gheys  flipping out over evil Christians
  6. Anti-nuke frikken’ hippies afraid of the almighty atom

 

 Posted by at 7:38 am
Sep 132015
 

Now available… two new additions to the US Aerospace Projects series.

 

US Bomber Projects #16: The B-52 Evolution Special

Boeing Model 444 A: A late war turboprop heavy bomber
Boeing Model 461: An early postwar turboprop heavy bomber
Boeing Model 462: A large six-turboprop ancestor of the B-52
Boeing Model 462-5: A six-turboprop B-52 ancestor
Boeing Model 464-17: 1946 four-turboprop strategic bomber, a step toward the B-52
Boeing Model 464-18: a reduced-size version of the 464-17 turboprop strategic bomber
Boeing Model 464-25: a modification of the 464-17 turboprop bomber with slightly swept wings, among other changes
Boeing Model 464-27: a slightly-swept turboprop B-52 progenitor
Boeing Model 464-33-0: A turboprop B-52 predecessor
Boeing Model 464-34-3: A turboprop B-52 predecessor
Boeing Model 464-40: The first all-jet-powered design in the quest for the B-52
Boeing Model 464-40: The first all-jet-powered design in the quest for the B-52
Boeing Model 464-046: A six-engined B-52 predecessor
Boeing Model 464-49: The penultimate major design in the development of the B-52
Fairchild M-121:A highly unconventional canard-biplane
Convair B-60: A swept-wing turboprop-powered derivative of the B-36
Douglas Model 1211-J: An elegant turboprop alternative to the B-52
With additional diagrams of the B-47, XB-52 and B-52B

USBP#16 can be purchased for downloading for the low, low price of $6.

usbp16ad2 usbp16ad1

US Spacecraft Projects #03

Northrop ST-38 Space Trainer: a rocket-powered T-38 for trips to space
“Have Sting:” A General Electric design for a gigantic orbital railgun
JPL Thousand Astronomical Unit probe: A spacecraft into interstellar space
Integrated Manned Interplanetary Spacecraft: A Boeing concept for a giant spacecraft to Mars and Venus
Convair Inflatable Spacecraft: an early spaceplane concept
One Man Space Station: A 1960 McDonnell concept for a tiny space station
Astroplane: A lightweight aircraft for the exploration of Mars
Reactor-In-Flight Test: A Lockheed nuclear-powered stage for the Saturn V

 

USSP#03 can be purchased for downloading for the low, low price of $5.

ussp03ad2 ussp03ad1

 Posted by at 2:08 pm
Sep 112015
 

The first story is now available for Pax Orionis patrons. This is available for the low, low price of only a buck. But if you pledge $2 or more, you get not only the story – “The Deadliest Catch, Part One” – but also a Technical Diagram and description of the USS Orion test flight article, and a bonus news article, the first of a number that will tell a tale.

becomeapatron

 Posted by at 11:26 pm
Sep 112015
 

A day after poking fun at the “artisinal” movement, along comes this:

I love the Victorian era. So I decided to live in it.

Where we read about the author and her husband who have decided to replace every trace of modernity with Victorian tech, including lighting their home with oil lamps.

Now, someone wants to live in an oddball way… so long as their doing so neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg, more power to ’em. But this article emits such a dense cloud of smug that the subjects of the piece come off as people ya just want to slip a case of TB to, just to see how committed to their cause they really are. I’d be tempted to suggest that they are essentially cosplayers who life their fantasy 24/7, but they’ve gone way beyond that. Most cosplayers hardly have actually functioning rayguns.

The article raises and fails to answer a number of questions:

  1. So how do they fund this way of life? It seems terribly expensive, while not being something that would seem to bring in a whole lot of cash. That oddball tricycle she’s shown riding, for example.
  2. So how do they *really* deal with medical issues?
  3. Ahem TP ahem.
  4. They turn on some olde-timey incandescent light bulbs when they have guest. Who the hell would visit them, and why?
  5. Note that this article was published on the internet. How the hell did *that* happen? Did they cobble together a Babbage Difference Engine that could connect to WiFi? The author also has a vintage, historically accurate artisinal Victorian website.
  6. Lice. Ticks. Bedbugs. Rodents. Bleah.

The author is living her dream, so bully for her. I can see the appeal of wearing “vintage” fashions… why, I’ve often thought dressing much like a 9th century Viking, but with a  Civil War Union kepi, modern combat boots, 1980’s mirrored aviator sunglasses, an 1896 Mauser Broomhandle and a WWII-era Tommygun would make a fellow a fashion icon. But am I gonna dress like that *every* day? Heck no, that’s only for special days.

 Posted by at 4:49 pm
Sep 112015
 

To truly end animal suffering, the most ethical choice is to kill wild predators (especially Cecil the lion)

These deep thinkers put forward the notion that the most ethical thing humanity could do to reduce the suffering of wild critters is to wipe out and render extinct predatory species, leaving only the brainless herbivores, and to reduce *their* numbers enough so that they all live in a leafy utopia.

Oy.

My “favorite” line:

And there’s no reason for considering the lives of predators like lions to be more important than the lives of their prey.

Well, except that predators are almost always substantially smarter than prey. Humans willingly associate ourselves with predators far more so than with prey. Look at your pets: Sure, there might be the occasional bunny or berry-eating turtle, but do the families that have such really think of those animals as parts of the family? Contrast to pet cats and dogs. Those fellers *are* parts of the family.

The mindset that leads people to think that getting rid of carnivores may be funny, but it’s also worrisome. Just as welfare states lead nations to weakness, so does a philosophy that carnivores are necessarily evil lead to weakness. And weakness makes you easier prey for other people who *don’t* share your fluffy worldview.

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 Posted by at 10:34 am
Sep 112015
 

Saudi offers to build 200 mosques in Germany for Syrian refugees

Gee, greeeeaaat. One mosque for every 100 migrants who showed up in Germany last weekend. What a helpful gesture! I’m sure that has nothing to do with trying to get those migrants permanently ensconced within German culture. Nope. No colonial intentions whatsoever. Just a nice way to be helpful, because clearly the thing these people – and the German people – need more than anything is to perpetuate the ideology and power structure that made things a hellhole back home.

It would be nice if Germany responds with an offer to build 200 mosques in *Saudi* *Arabia* and to ship the migrants there.

 Posted by at 10:08 am
Sep 102015
 

As may have been apparent, I like old-school aerospace blueprints. I’ve gone to considerable effort to develop some skill at reproducing them using the cyanotype method on vellum paper, and, while not a precise match for what would have been made 60 years ago, I still think they’re pretty good. I think they’re great art.

But then I see videos like the one below, and wonder if I’m just being sucked into trendy nonsense…

 Posted by at 11:56 pm