Since 1983, there’s been no such thing as an iteration of Star Trek that I didn’t actively want to see. But that’s changing…
Mar 082017
Mar 082017
A brief snowstorm blew by evening before last just before sundown, passing over Thatcher before heading straight for Tremonton. Snagged some fair photos of it. The panoramas here are reduced to 10% full size.
Mar 072017
Bell has unveiled a very sci-fi mockup of a “concept helicopter.” It features some unusual things:
A hybrid propulsion system
Variable geometry rotor tips
Lots and lots of glass
Only a single pilots seat
No physical control.
It’s that last one that’ll probably cause the most consternation. The pilot is meant to wear augmented reality goggles/visor/glasses/whatever; this will place data screens in front of him in an arrangement the pilot prefers. Control will still be manual, but the choppers onboard AI will presumably be able to track the pilots hands as he manipulates phantom controls.
Sure, it sounds cool, but two issues immediately present themselves:
1: Computer goes goofy. Malware, hacking, power surge, EMP, whatever… this thing seems like a deathtrap if the computer goes down.
2: Phantom controls that exist solely in the computers imagination and the pilots visor… sure, that sounds cool, and is certainly a common enough trope in sci-fi. Witness anytime Tony Stark wants to design anything, for instance. But in reality, your hands and arms get tired. You actually rest on the steering wheel or the yoke or the collective. Additionally, pilots really like to get direct feedback, which seems as yet beyond the ability to reproduce virtually. More, with every bump or jolt, the pilots hands will flail around. In a conventional helicopter, the pilots hands will be constrained by the controls they are gripping. In this one… nothing.
I would suggest a compromise: a set of *basic* physical instruments. Just what the pilot needs to safely fly the chopper. And I’d damn sure stick with physical controls. But… keep the augmented reality for the *secondary* instruments. Navigation, radio, air conditioning, whisper mode, thermal vision, fire rearward missiles… that can be via virtual reality. Instrument panels that are called up with a voice command, and recede when not in use.
Bell Helicopter unveils futuristic FCX-001 concept aircraft
Not at all related:
Mar 072017
Last evening while out photographing a snowstorm that blew by (panoramas to follow), I happened to see a jetliner heading towards the moon. I got the standard lens swapped out for the telephoto lens just in time to not quite catch the jetliner not quite crossing in front of the moon. Pretty sure it’s a 787. Anybody recognize the livery?
Mar 072017
Buttons is by far my friendliest cat. Friendliest cat I’ve ever known, in fact. Part of his friendliness is expressed in his sleep preference… right next to my head, purring like a machine. He’d sleep *on* my head if he though he could.
One of the more unusual things he does, though, is to sleep “hand in hand” with me. *Many’s* the time I’ve woken up to find him sleeping next to me with a paw outstretched, resting on my palm. Of course the circumstances of this are such that it doesn’t exactly lend itself to photography… as soon as I move he withdraws the paw. So that explains the craptacular quality of these cameraphone shots taken a few days ago.
I have n particularly good explanation for why he does that apart from “he does it because he wants to.”
Mar 072017
Some time back I took possession of a mess of aerospace documents. Tucked in among them was a black and white glossy photo showing a Douglas DC-8 with just a hint of a structural issue…
Mar 062017
As sort of a followup to this post from a few days ago, here’s a link. Like it says on the tin…
NASA Software
This is somewhat akin to the NASA Tech Report Server. Search for software, get results. However, the software falls into a range of categories, such as:
- Open Source
- U.S. Government Purpose Release
- U.S. Release only
- General Public Release
- U.S and Foreign Release
A few you can “Download Now”, but from what I’ve seen with most you must “Request Now.”
Couldn’t find that warp core operating system I’ve been looking for. Must be behind the firewall.
Mar 042017
I have posted in the 2017-03 APR Extras Dropbox folder for APR Patrons a small pile of aerospace history images yoinked out of a few reports. Included is a 1944 NACA reconstruction of the German V-1 buzz bomb (generally correct, but off in detail), three photos of a wind tunnel model of the Bell X-1 modified to have variable sweep wings, three pieces of NASA art depicting some then-future applications of space propulsion systems including a one-man lunar flyer, an early concept for what became Skylab, and a more advanced modular space station. The full-rez verions are available to all APR Patreon patrons at the $4 level and above. If interested, please consider signing up. There are a whole bunch of other goodies available in past months folders, more stuff coming.
Much more aerospace stuff is available via the APR Patreon. If this sort of thing interests you, please consider signing up… not only will you help fund the search for obscure aerospace history, you’ll gain access to a lot of interesting stuff, not available elsewhere.
Mar 042017
While I’m usually pretty good with cats, the fact is that cats are *generally* untrusting of humans they don’t know… and for good reason. So I was not overly offended a few days ago when, going for a walk, I happened across this feller on the bank of an agricultural ditch and he gave me the stink-eye. I don’t know if I interrupted a mouse hunt, but it was clear that he didn’t want me there. Shortly after, he took off like a shot.
Mar 032017
Recently there have been a lot of antisemitic weirdness in the US. Vandalism (including knocking over gravestones), graffiti, and a whole lot of bomb threats against Jewish community centers and schools and such. Predictably, these acts have been glommed upon by the political yammering heads… claims that these are the result of neo-Nazis/white supremicists somehow being “emboldened” by the election of Donald Trump have been pretty common.
Finally, an arrest has been made. And hoo boy, does the accused not fit the narrative:
Ex-journalist arrested over US Jewish centre threats
The feller arrested is one Juan Thompson, a 31-year-old Missourian. The Official Preferred Narrative would have had Mr. Thompson being a Confederate flag-waving Trump-worshipping racist white redneck… but, sadly, he’s not really fitting that description all that well. It seems he fits the “racist” part of it reasonably well… but his racism is directed *at* whites.
Whoopsie.
It seems that Mr. Thompson was sending out bomb threat after bomb threat to sow actual terror… but not necessarily at the Jewish centers, but at his former girlfriend. It seems that he was attempting to frame *her* for these acts because he’s, y’know, a nutburger. It’s very likely that the best decision the ex-girlfriend ever made was getting the heck away from this guy.
He’s an entertaining headline:
Disgraced Left-Wing Reporter Charged With Making Several JCC Threats in Plot to Frame Ex-Girlfriend
The “disgraced” comes from some actual “fake news” that Mr. Thompson produced during his time as a journalist. He seems like a real piece of work… “fabulist” seems a rather understated descriptor. He seems to have been utterly delusional:
Before Bomb Threats, Juan Thompson Unraveled — and Terrorized an RFT Reporter
Perhaps most impressive, Mr. Thompson wrote articles about Dylann Roof (the racist white guy who shot up a black church a couple years ago), in which he interviewed Roof’s cousin Scott Roof. Scott provided details like the fact that Dylan was normal until he started listening to White Power music, which warped his tiny little mind. There’s one small problem with the story, though… no such cousin as “Scott Roof” actually exists. This sort of thing led to him being a “former” journalist.
Juan Thompson is no stranger to controversy
Now, Mr. Thompson is not suspected of being responsible for all of the antisemitic acts and threats lately. It’s thought that he’s just a copycat, and that there are a number of other scumbags out there doing this nonsense. But I think he is instructive in pointing out that when it comes to scumbaggery, politically useful narratives can *easily* be dead wrong. Especially when we live in a world populated by actual crazy people.