Jun 202017
Jun 192017
Here’s something interesting on eBay:
AQM-37C Jayhawk Real Target Drone. Full size. Not a mock up.
The AQM-37 used a hypergolic liquid rocket motor, which I would imagine isn’t included here. With some effort I imagine it could be replaced with a hybrid rocket motor and turned into the most badass RC airplane around.
Jun 192017
Russia to Target US, Coalition Aircraft Over Syria
Oh, good. Russia shooting down Malaysian airliners over Ukraine is bad enough, but shooting down American combat aircraft? That’s a whole new level of stupid.
Now, there is a valid argument to be made over whether the US should be in Syria at all. A case can be made that we shouldn’t, thus freeing up ISIS forces to dominate the region, spreading death and decay, and forcing the Europeans to either man up or begin the process of knuckling under. But so long as we’re there, US planes should do their job, which includes wiping out Assads criminal military actions. And if Russian forces try to shoot down US planes, they should be counter-attacked in response. And that sort of thing tends to escalate.
Jun 192017
… I wonder if perhaps this might be reacting *a**bit* excessively.
I wonder about the plusses-minuses about having a significant other *that* passionate about nerdly subjects.
Jun 192017
If you are a female cat, there’s no more desirable place to be than right next to or – if you’re ambitious – right on top of a big, fluffy male cat like Raedthinn. This, however, is a situation that Raedthinn rarely approves of, preferring to keep to himself.
How to yank the reader right out of the story
AARRRGH, blather, Gah., Meh., news, projects, rockets, spacecraft, ಠ_ಠ
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Jun 192017
Over the last week or so there have been a whole lot of stories about Elon Musks plans for colonization of Mars. Good, great, fine. But some stories are better than others. And one way to get into the “others” category is to have some factual error or just plain bad writing. For example:
Elon Musk claims Mars colony dreams critical to avoid ‘Doomsday’ event
Out of all the options currently open to us, Venus is a cooking pot of pressure and acid, Mercury is too close to the sun and the planet’s moons are difficult to reach…
The moons of Mercury are hard to reach? Yeah, I imagine they are. They’re as hard to reach as Alderaan, Dune and The Land Of Honest Politicians.
It is estimated that sending a single person to Mars could cost up to $10 billion at the moment. … Therefore, Musk wants to eventually reduce the cost to the average price of a house in the US — roughly $200,000 — but in order to reach this goal and slash the expense by five million percent, a number of steps will need to be taken.
Errrrrmmmm… cutting a price tag from $10,000,000,000 to $200,000 is cutting the cost by 99.998%, not “five million percent.” If you cut the cost of something by 100%, you make it free. If you cut it by *more* than 100%, you actually get paid.
Jun 182017
Sigh. So today news broke that Stephen Furst, Vir Cotto of Babylon 5, died of diabetes complications Friday at the age of 63.
Stephen Furst, actor who played Flounder in ‘Animal House,’ dies at 63
So, to update the list:
Stephen Furst, played Vir Cotto, died June 2017
Jerry Doyle, played Michael Fraggin’ Garibaldi, died July 2016.
Robin Sachs died in February 2013, played a number of aliens… Narns Na’Tok, Na’Kal; Minbari Coplann and Hedronn
Turhan Bey, played the Centauri emperor, died in September 2012.
Michael O’Hare, who played the station commander Jeffrey Sinclair for the first season, died in September 2012, two days before Bey.
Jeff Conaway, played Zack Allen, died in May, 2011
Johnny Sekka, played Dr. Kyle in “The Gathering” pilot, died September, 2006.
Andreas Katsulas, played the inestimable G’Kar, died February, 2006
Tim Choate (Zathras) died in September, 2004.
Richard Biggs, played Doctor Franklin, died May, 2004
Paul Winfield, played Doc Franklin’s dad, died March, 2004
Gah.
The Babylon 5 cast in their prime.
Jun 182017
Here’s an interesting product:
The official purpose is to make clothing reflective for joggers and bikers and the like. But it sure seems like alternative uses are possible:
- License plates: for those people plagued by stop light cameras equipped with flash, this would seem to *maybe* provide a way to keep the man from figuring out who you are.
- Celebrities: put this stuff in your makeup and flash-equipped paparazzis are going to have a problem.
- Similar to 1&2, for use on the street by anyone who wants to mess with flash-equipped facial recognition systems. (However, I suspect most such don’t rely on flashes, so this stuff would add no benefit)
- Use on remote controlled devices… your drone or RC car gets lost in the woods, it’d actually be easier to spot at night if you use a flashlight.
- Some sort of “boobytrap:” someone breaks into your home, car or shop, they get dusted with this stuff. Won’t be immediately obvious, but it will be under lights. Of course, there are other approaches, such as UV substances, indelible bright-orange inks or even concentrated sulfuric acid.
The product shown here appears to be basically a spray-on dust, easily wiped off. There is an alternate version that’s supposedly permanent.
Jun 182017
Here’s an interesting one: a detailed large-format diagram of the US Space Shuttle orbiter… as drawn up by Soviet draftsmen in 1976. Interestingly, the top view includes, in red, the basic outline of the Soviet “Buran” shuttle orbiter. A surprisingly high-rez version of this diagram can be FOUND HERE.
The diagram is not entirely accurate, especially with regards to the OMS pod. The rear end of the pod in the side view is distinctly inaccurate. But note the faint lines just ahead of the OMS pods in the top and side views. One of the last noticeable changes to the Orbiters configuration was the change to the forward end of the OMS pod; originally, the pods continued forward onto the cargo bay doors. This continuation was just an aerodynamic fairing; all the equipment an tanks were in the pod aft of the doors.
Jun 172017
Step one: be a Swedish “expert on multiculturalism and Islamophobia.”
Step two: collect substantial sums from the Swedish government in the form of welfare payments
Step three: Convert to islam
Step four: Move your entire family to Syria to fight with ISIS
Step five: call for terrorist attacks against civilians within Sweden
Step six…?
Step seven: blame violence on Trump supporters and right-wing talk radio rhetoric, I suppose…