New Horizons photo downloads continue to roll in. NASA has posted some new ones that are worth a look:
New Horizons Science Photos
Sep 102015
Sep 102015
This is… beautiful:
Lockpickers 3-D Print TSA Master Luggage Keys From Leaked Photos
The Washington Post published a photo showing the TSA’s master keys (the ones that can open *any* “TSA approved” lock that you might use to lock up your checked baggage). Some smart fellers figured out how to turn the photos into CAD models; others 3D printed them and have posted videos showing these 3D printed keys successfully opening TSA locks. The key was printed in crappy plastic, not metal, but it worked anyway.
So… your locks are no good no more.
Sep 102015
The human family tree just got a bit bigger with the addition of Homo naledi.
New species of extinct human found in cave may rewrite history
Age is uncertain, some two to three million years old. There’s a sculpted reconstruction of what a Homo naledi might’ve looked like… clearly a relative… but a fuggin’ ugmo, to say the least.
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Sep 092015
It’s the Daily Mail, so…
Europe’s fracture continues as Denmark closes road and rail links with Germany in bid to stem the flow of migrants heading for Scandinavia
If accurate, it seems that once again Germany is causing trouble for its neighbors.
I heard an interesting theory today: the current “migrant crisis” is America’s fault. Not the usual dribble about Syria’s troubles being due to the US invading Iraq in 2003, but a longer-term issue. The idea goes that after WWII, the US basically took over the job of defending western Europe. As a result of the Europeans not having to devote much of their national budgets to defense, they were able to build up their welfare states, which has made those nations not only weaker* but also made them more attractive destinations. Kinda the “attractive nuisance” of national policies.
*Weaker because:
- Less national defense/border security
- Less national identity (and thus less interest in actually preserving their national identity)
Not sure it’s necessarily true, but it’s an interesting thought.
Also, THIS ARTICLE claims that 4,000 migrants are landing on the Greek island of Lesbos every day. The population of the island is about 87,000. Thus the locals will be outnumbered in just about three weeks.
PS: Is this thing on? The Disqus commenting system went goofy a day or two back. Since then I *think* it’s back, but there’ve been only a couple of comments, far fewer than normal. I don’t know if that’s due to difficulty in posting, or just a lack of interest in doing so. So if you’re even remotely interested in commenting, give it a shot. If you have any trouble, shoot me an email at scottlowther AT ixDOTnetcomDOT com.
Sep 092015
Boeing has released some pretty animation of their Commercial Space Transport space capsule. Together with Dragon and Orion, the US *should* be back to sending its own astronauts into space in a few years.
“Starliner” is of course not an entirely accurate name. It’s not going to the stars, only low Earth orbit. And it carries a total of four passengers… not much of a liner.
Pfff. Inaccurately named vehicles? Perish the thought.
Sep 092015
Slate discovers the blindingly obvious:
Student Loans Might Be Driving Up the Cost of College.
In short, it turns out that when the Federal government blindly subsidizes something, that something becomes more expensive. Why? Because those who are getting paid to provide that something now are virtually assured of getting paid whatever they ask for, because the FedGuv will pay it.
Note that there is no good reason to assume that this applies to college, but not, say, to health care.
schools raised tuition by 55 cents for each $1 increase in Pell grants their undergraduates received, and by 60 to 70 cents for each extra dollar of subsidized student loans.
No kiddin’.
Lemme put it this way: I normally charge $4 for a copy of US Bomber Projects, and sell to – if I’m lucky – about 100 people. But if the FedGuv came along and told a whole bunch of folks – say, a thousand – that they’d subsidize ’em to the tune of $3 to buy a copy of USBP, chances are *real* good that I’d sell the better part of three or four hundred. Good for me! Now, if society told those 1,000 people that if they wanted to get ahead if life they’d better buy USBP, chances are good I’d sell more than 950 of ’em. Yay! But once *I* realized that those people are bound and determined to buy USBP, *and* that they will definitely have the funds to do so… you can bet your ass the next time you check out the webpage, the average issue of USBP will be $5. And then $6. And then $8.
And those 950 buyers will still buy at $8 an issue, and will *demand* that the government give them $7 to do so. So who’d be unhappy here? Not me. Not the subsidized buyers; they get the product they want and don’t care about the cost. Not the government, because who cares who much things cost? You know who cares? Two people. The taxpayers who have to fund this disaster. And anyone who wants to buy a copy of USBP and who *isn’t* being funded by the government.
Sep 092015
The next set of stuff… including diagrams being worked for the Pax Orionis Patreon. The Spacecraft diagrams have taken a *lot* longer than expected.
Sep 082015
Is it just me, or does the Disqus commenting system look different now?
UPATE: Hmmm. For some reason, Disqus commenting got turned off. *I* didn’t do that. Hmmmph.
Sep 082015
The Pax Orionis Patreon is now online. It’s a little bare, but it at least seems to be up and running. The first piece of fiction and a tech diagram will be ready in a few days, so the first patrons will be kinda guinea pigs. With this system, patrons get charged when new stuff is made available, rather than on a strict monthly schedule.
So if’n you’ve got a hankering for stories about an alternate history with extra nuclear wars and spacelanes filled with atom bomb powered spacecraft, I got ya covered.
Sep 082015
Huh.
Meet ‘Mark’, the crazy genius who designed an aeroplane while drunk
Mark, a mechanical engineering student at Michigan Tech, got blitzed, designed an airplane, then woke up with no recollection of it.
Granted, it’s of course not a complete design, but instead sketches and a bunch of math. But damn, those sketches are a lot better than some I’ve seen come out of *sober* *professional* aircraft designers. The aircraft is a wing-in-ground effect plane, designed to skim just above the surface of the water; the air compressed between the wing and the waters surface creates more lift than if the aircraft was slightly higher, flying out of ground effect. WIG craft are dandy ways of gaining fuel efficiency for relatively slow transport planes, so long as you’re cool with a bumpy ride. Which, if you’re wasted, you probably are.
The story sounds like a fun adventure in Asperger’s Syndrome; “Mark” plunged into design work with a passion and yammered at his roommates, going through all the math in detail while they laughed. That sort of commitment to cause in the face of derision is a common feature of Aspergers. But the blackout drunk aspect of the story makes it a bit different from usual.
The real question now is: is Mark a better designer sober… or drunk? There is of course precedent.
