Early Saturn V art

 art, history, nukes, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Aug 222018
 

Found on ebay: a piece of B&W art depicting the Saturn V. The provenance is uncertain… unknown where this art originated. There are some unusual details; the tailfins are clocked 45 degrees off, moved from the outer diameter of the engine firings to between them, an odd choice to say the least. The third stage is larger in diameter than the S-IVb with a very long interstage between the S-II and the S-IVb; this *may* indicate that the third stage was meant to be a nuclear stage, with a single NERVA engine attached to the rear of the S-N third stage. The payload is also different: it appears to be a direct lander… no LEM, the Apollo vehicle landed directly on the lunar surface.

 Posted by at 11:34 pm

Raise the Burevestnik

 aircraft, Hmm..., news, nukes, russian empire, weapons, youtube  No Responses »
Aug 222018
 

As described hereabouts back in March, Vladimir Putin claims to have himself a nuclear powered cruise missile. I remain dubious, but the fact is that the Russians launched *something* and it crashed into the Barents sea. The Russians seem to be looking for it… and chances are fair that the United states Navy is as well.

Back in July the Russians released a video that purported to show bits and pieces of the supposedly nuclear-powered Burevestnik missile:

The video does not show the configuration with any clarity. What can be made out is that it seemed to have a fairly conventional forward fuselage designed for low radar reflectivity, with relatively simple flip-out wings of the type common to cannisterized cruise missiles. Two further points can be gleaned from the video:

1) The missile isn’t that big… seems right in line with something like a Tomahawk.

2) The facility almost seems like  a high school gym.

Both of these argue against taking the claim of nuclear propulsion too seriously. Of course, it’s a video produced and released by the Russians, so it’s impossible to say whether it is remotely accurate; it could be pure deception. But assuming it truly depicts the weapon system, it seems *real* *small* for nuclear propulsion, and the facility and the workers in it seems to be pretty lackadaisical about working around nuclear systems.

 Posted by at 8:47 pm

Occupations and their ideologies

 Forward!, Hmm..., politics  No Responses »
Aug 212018
 

Some jobs seems to employ right wingers; some, left wingers. Here is a study that tries to map out the left-right differences between various careers. It’s interesting, BUT: a few obvious occupations are left out. Chemists, physicists, scientists of all kinds; aerospace engineers, mechanical engineers, nuclear engineers, engineers of all kinds. These would be interesting to see mapped out here. My own admittedly limited experience in aerospace indicates that the rocket side of aerospace is loaded with Republicans/Libertarians/right-wingers/conservatives/etc. to the point that any lefties are known as the oddball kooks in the company.

Occupations and Their Ideologies

Some utterly unshocking results include: those in motion pictures, professors, civil servants are overwhelming left; those in oil & gas, construction, automotive are overwhelmingly right. The speculation:

the left-wing occupations seem to be mostly about social performance and they garner high status. The right-wing occupations are mostly about mundane things and garner zero or negative status.

In other words:  Those on the right are doing stuff that needs doing, and they’re not doing it for glory; those on the left are doing stuff that’s all about appearance and status.

 

 Posted by at 10:15 pm

… With Thunderous Applause

 AARRRGH, Crazy, Forward!, Gah., Hmm..., news, politics, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Aug 202018
 

Every now and then Bill Maher is right. Like here, where he says that on  the one hand Alex Jones is a vile whacko, and on the other hand, he has the right to speak. But then there’s the audience and the panel, including former Governor Jennifer Granholm (D, Michigan), who loudly celebrate someone they don’t like being deplatformed.

 Posted by at 6:57 pm

Back when CNN was a news network

 AARRRGH, history, Hmm..., rockets, spacecraft, youtube  No Responses »
Aug 202018
 

CNN’s live coverage of the Shuttle Challenger launch, January 28, 1986. Compare to modern coverage: here, the event plays out live… and without a constant running commentary of inane babble. A reporter at the time would have no useful information for several minutes; he would not be able to tell the viewers anything they would not be able to figure out themselves. Today… you would expect *someone* to be running his or her damnfool mouth nonstop, apparently living in terror of three seconds of “dead air.”

 

Similarly, later that night President Reagan gave a brief televised speech to the nation. The Great Communicator earned his accurate nickname, one that has not applied to any President since. Sure as hell doesn’t *now.”

Theoretically CNN is *still* a news network. But I have randomly flipped over to the channel from time to time, probably several times a day… and I cannot recall how long it has been that I’ve seen actual news coverage. These days, every time I go to CNN it’s nothing but talking heads complaining about Trump. These days I see the “news” part of CNN to be a vestigial organ from the past, much like the “music” in MTV.

 Posted by at 1:59 am

HLH art: 3

 aircraft, art, projects  No Responses »
Aug 192018
 

Another ebay find depicting the Boeing Heavy Lift Helicopter, this time carrying a heavy truck of some kind. Perhaps as a bit of a dig at Sikorsky, in the background another HLH is shown carrying a CH-54 Skycrane.

 Posted by at 11:28 pm

NERVA to Mars art

 art, history, nukes, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Aug 192018
 

A piece of Aerojet artwork depicting the NERVA nuclear rocket engine heading to Mars. This is almost certainly artistic license as the vehicle depicted here is a single stumpy upper stage with an aerodynamic fairing. This is mot likely a RIFT (Reactor In Flight Test) configuration, a simple expendable upper stage test configuration meant to be launched atop a Saturn V to prove out the engine.

 Posted by at 10:06 pm

I suspect a few people will be a bit disappointed by this

 art, Forward!, Hmm..., news, politics  No Responses »
Aug 192018
 

Kevin Spacey’s new film ‘Billionaire Boys Club’ opens to incredibly low $126 following sexual misconduct allegations

Projecting a lifetime total of maybe $500. I suspect more than $500 was spent on the production of this movie.

However: the foreign take is in excess of $1.4 million. Still dismal, but not as dramatically awful as $126.

 

Perhaps this should be a lesson to Hollywood: stop employing scumbags. Of course to do that Hollywood would have to stop employing pretty much anyone who actually works in Hollywood.

 Posted by at 8:10 pm
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