From the same kid what who dun brung us the drone with a pistol, comes a drone with a flamethrower:
Dec 102015
Dec 092015
The truth is finally starting to come out…
Woodland rejects solar farm
Problem one: reduction in property value.
Mary Hobbs… said her home is surrounded by solar farms and is no longer worth its value because of those facilities.
Problem two: friggen’ dark magic.
Jane Mann … is a retired Northampton science teacher and is concerned that photosynthesis, which depends upon sunlight, would not happen and would keep the plants from growing. … also questioned the high number of cancer deaths in the area, saying no one could tell her that solar panels didn’t cause cancer.
Problem three: photonic shop-vacs.
Bobby Mann … said the solar farms would suck up all the energy from the sun…
Now, I’m not the world’s biggest fan of solar power. Sure, I’d plaster my roof with PV arrays if I could afford the infrastructure. But if you have a great big solar farm, you could generate *vastly* more power by building a full-up nuclear reactor there.
But even so: believing that solar panels will drain all the sunlight from a region? Arguing that something is dangerous because you haven’t proven it doesn’t cause cancer? This, my friends is GRADE A FRIGGEN STOOOPID.
Of course this could also be a result of journalistic journalismizing, taking poorly phrased statements out of context. But it’s getting *really* easy to believe that people can be that dumb.
Dec 092015
Posted without comment…
Dec 092015
A paper has been published that makes a case for the bright spots on Ceres being largely salt with a bit of water ice. it would seem that there is probably a layer of frozen brine under the surface, a layer that gets exposed from time to time by meteorites.
Sublimation in bright spots on (1) Ceres
Next up: Cerean Sea Monkeys.
Dec 092015
Images of the Mariner 4 probe, which flew past Mars on July 15, 1965, the first time a spacecraft successfully explored the planet. Note the “Solar pressure Vanes.” These were, as may seem obvious from the photos, very lightweight reflectors. While solar photon pressure was not enough to turn the Mariner 4 into any sort of meaningful solar sail, it was enough to actually adjust the attitude of the spacecraft.
Dec 082015
As regaled previously, a bit over a month ago I came into possession of Bruce Da Cat, and quickly a vet’s test showed him positive for the Feline Leukemia virus. Their suggestion was to test again in four months on the off chance he manages to fight it off.
Got bored with waiting, so I took him to a different vet today and had him tested again: came up negative.
So… in a little while I’ll find a third vet and have him tested *again* as a tie breaker.
Dec 082015
… is coming to Spike TV as a series.
Spike Gives Straight-to-Series Order to ‘Red Mars’
Best point: it’s being written by Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski.
The “Red Mars” trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson is kinda divisive… some people love it, some hate it. I read the first book 17 or so years ago… and don’t remember it overly much. Still, there’s no such thing as too much hard sci-fi on TV.
Dec 072015
USLP 03
Issue 03 of US Launch Vehicle Projects is now available (see HERE for the entire series). Issue #03 includes:
- Juno V/Titan/Nomad: A 1958 concept for a space launcher using an ICBM for upper stages
- Convair ATE Nova: A 1963 idea for winged airbreathing boosters
- B-70/Gemini: Using a bomber as a booster
- Phase II VTOHL Orbit-On-Demand: a 1985 concept for a relatively small two stage to orbit spaceplane
- NASA Lewis Saturn Ib/Centaur/Kick Stage: a high energy upper stage
- NASA MSC 042B/Titan IIIL6: a straight-winged orbiter atop a large Titan derivative
- Heavy Lift Titan: A large diameter Titan core with three Shuttle boosters
- Escher “Unshackled”: An unconventional idea for a lunar rocket
USLP #03 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $4:
——–
—–
Large format USBP drawings, Issues 10-12
The CAD drawings created for USBP reformatted and rescaled for 11X17 collected in a separate volume. Drawings have in some cases been corrected, improved and added to.
USBP 11X17 10-12 collects the diagrams created for issues 10, 11 and 12, including:
Boeing Model 464-34-3, Republic mach 7, Lockheed CL-1301-1, Convair WS-125A, Boeing 484-415, Martin Model 223-10, Boeing Model 814-1010 Dyna Soar, Martin Model 192-5, Boeing Model 464-40, Boeing Model 701-218, Northrop Nuclear flying wing, North American D118, Martin Model 223-11, North American Model 705-00-04, Bell/Martin 464L, Boeing B-1, Boeing Big Bird BB 6800, Boeing Model464-41, Douglas MX-2091-E, Boeing Model 701-238, Martin Model 223-12, Northrop Nuclear Flying Wing, Rockwell MRCC, Lockheed CL-820-8
USBP11x17-10-12 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $10:
————–
—-
Large format USBP drawings, Issues 13-15
The CAD drawings created for USBP reformatted and rescaled for 11X17 collected in a separate volume. Drawings have in some cases been corrected, improved and added to.
USBP 11X17 13-15 collects the diagrams created for issues 10, 11 and 12, including:
Ryan Model 162, Boeing Orbital bomb, Northrop Atomic Wing, Consolidated Vultee High Speed Flying Boat, Martin Model 189, Boeing Model 464-046, Curtis F-87C, Boeing Model 701-247, Lockheed WS 464L Dyna Soar, McDonnell WS 464L Dyna Soar, North American WS 464L Dyna Soar, Republic WS 464L Dyna Soar, Convair WS 464L Dyna Soar I, Convair WS 464L Dyna Soar II, Douglas WS 464L Dyna Soar, Northrop N206 WS 464L Dyna Soar, Boeing Model 814-1010 Dyna Soar II, Bell/Martin WS 464L Dyna Soar, Boeing Model 2050E Dyan Soar, Boeing Dyna Soar/ Titan IIIc, Bell D2001 TS-149, Lockheed Harvey; Convair Model 35, Rockwell D661-27, Boeing Model 464-49, Boeing Model 988-123, Boeing Manned Orbital Bomber, Boeing Model 701-251
USBP11x17-13-15 can be downloaded as a PDF file for only $10:
————–
—-
Dec 072015
For the last week or so, the news media, entertainment media and internet have been loaded down with claims that America has had more mass shootings in 2015 than 2015 has had days. This, of course, sounds pretty bad, and is a factoid being used by the civilian disarmament movement to further their cause of restricting firearms solely to agents of the government and violent criminals. But is the claim accurate?
Surprise, surprise, it’s not.
The Media’s Inflated ‘Mass Shootings’ Count Is Wildly Misleading
Basically, the definition of “mass shooting” had to be badly mangled in order to get the numbers they were after. The definition being used here is that in a single incident of gunfire, four or more people are injured or killed. Note, though, that it’s not four people injured by the shooter shooting them. Nor four people being injured by being shot. or, indeed, *anybody* being shot. Injuries such as bystanders running away, tripping and skinning their knee? They’re counted. The shooter himself gets shot by a cop, or beat half to death by a bystander, or shoots himself? He’s counted.
The number being trotted out is 355 mass shootings in 2015. The Congressional Research Service defines:
“mass public shooting” is a mass shooting “in at least one or more public locations, such as a workplace, school, restaurant, house of worship, neighborhood, or other public setting . . . and not attributable to any other underlying criminal activity or commonplace circumstance (armed robbery, criminal competition, insurance fraud, argument, or romantic triangle).” Using these definitions, Grant Duwe, in his 2007 book Mass Murder in the United States: A History, notes: “Excluding those that occurred in connection with criminal activity such as robbery, drug dealing, and organized crime, there were 116 mass public shootings during the twentieth century” (emphasis mine). The Congressional Research Service reported 317 mass shootings between 1999 and 2013, only 66 of which qualified under their criteria as mass public shootings.
According to this metric, there were fewer mass shootings in *14* *years* than is now being claimed for 2015.
However you count ’em, a mass public shooting is a Very Bad Thing. But some in the civilian disarmament movement are claiming that the US is somehow unique in this, that we are virtually alone in having mass shootings. But, surprise, surprise, this isn’t accurate either.
Comparing Death Rates from Mass Public Shootings and Mass Public Violence in the US and Europe
How dangerous is the US as far as mass shootings? Not very, compared to some Enlightened European Nations:
And how *often* do mass shootings happen in the US, compared to other nations?
Note that according to this data, the annual chances of an American being killed in a mass shooting is less than one in ten million. Sure, other countries might have lower risk, say, one in forty million. But one in ten million is such a vanishingly low number compared to other causes of death that stressing out about it, or allowing demagogues to mangle civil rights, just doesn’t make sense.
Here’s what you need to know about “gun control:”
Dec 072015
Here’s something I have some vague recollection of posting before, but couldn’t find after a cursory search: a sketch of the seating arrangement of a 3-man A-4 rocket (might be the A-8 derivative). This is a scan of a photocopy of a photocopy; the original photocopy was found in the files of a researcher at the NASM twenty or so years ago. It’s thought that the sketch was originally made by Werner von Braun during WWII.
Little data is provided; range is given as 500 km. *Presumably* this would have been a winged, landing-gear-equipped derivative of the A-4; replacing the warhead of the V-2 with just three guys seems like a waste of three guys, as well as a not terribly effective weapons system.
The full-rez scan (such as it is) has been made available to APR Patrons in the 2015-12 APR Extras Dropbox folder. If you’d like to help out and gain access to this and many other pieces of aerospace history, please check out the APR Patreon.
