Two days after I posted THIS, Black Rifle Coffee released THIS:
See, now here is a horror movie I’d watch, a story I’d like to write: the monsters/evil villains come looking for trouble and rather than finding screaming terrified helpless victims, find people not only ready for them, but enthusiastic about the challenge. And even if the monsters are not stoppable via normal means, doesn’t mean overwhelming and entertaining firepower can’t ruin their day…
A video description of the recent study of what Proxima b *might* be like. As the narrator takes great pains to point out, we know almost nothing of the planet beyond crude orbital elements and a rough guesstimate as to size. Atmosphere, ocean (if any), rotation… nada. What the study does is define a range of possibilities of what the place *might* be like given various initial assumptions. And some of those result in a pretty interesting place. And even though the majority of the end result worlds are certainly not like Proxima b, chances are good they resemble some *other* worlds elsewhere in the galaxy. Given that we’re finding planets pretty much everywhere we look, and just how common red dwarfs are, chances are good that these ice worlds with “lobster” oceans may be common.
You know, I gotta wonder just how effective campaigns like this are at driving people *towards* white supremacists.
Apart from the usual PETA complaints, there’s *this* bit of astonishment:
It’s not “natural” for people to drink cow’s milk
Ummm… yes, it is. People have been doing it for as long as people have been around cows. It’s as natural as bacon and eggs and steak.
What these wild-eyed political extremists do when they equate milk and ice cream with being a white supremacist is make white supremacy less unappealing. Because for those of us for whom lactose intolerance is not an issue, milk and other dairy products are CLEARLY AWESOME. PETA says that everyone should instead switch to soy, almond, coconut, etc. milk by claiming that they are delicious. Well, I’ve had them… and what they ain’t is delicious. Hell, a lot of them simply taste like weakly flavored chalk-water.
Left unexplored by PETA are the racial connotations of chocolate and strawberry milk.
And if drinking cows milk, something done around the world for millennia, is “not natural,” I gotta wonder about just how the hell making milk from soybeans and almonds is “natural.”
The B-47C was a 1950 Boeing proposal to re-engine the six-engine B-47 with four engines. It is usually depicted as being largely indistinguishable from the standard B-47 except that the inboard engine nacelles only had a single engine. However, in early 1952 the Model 450-155-33 was designed and designated the B-47C that not only had four P&W J-57-P-1 engines but also a very different fuselage. Most obviously, the cockpit was completely redesigned and was now indistinguishable from that of the B-52.
Another Keith Ferris painting for an ad in Aviation Week, late 1967.
Two and a half years ago I released seven CAD diagrams as 18X24 “posters” in PDF format. There was a little bit of interest, but not enough to move the project to the top of my to-do list and, like many of my projects, it fell by the wayside. Still, it’s always possible that some of the CAD diagrams I’ve created for US Aerospace Projects and other efforts in the years since might be of interest. If so, and you’ve always wanted to see such-and-such a diagram made available, comment below.
Here are the original seven:
CAD 007: Northrop Low Altitude Penetrator
A 1/72 diagram of a 1979 design for a B-2 alternate configuration
Download for $3
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CAD 006
A 1/96 scale diagram of the 1979 Rockwell D645-4a spanloader bomber.
Download for $3
CAD 005
A 1/144 scale diagram of the Manned Spacecraft Center MSC Orbiter 020, a 1972 Space Shuttle concept with a single 260″ solid rocket booster.
Download for $3
CAD 004
A 1/350 scale diagram of the 1971 Boeing Resource Air Carrier (AKA RC-1, AKA “Brute Lifter”) designed as a flying oil tanker for the arctic.
Download for $3
CAD 003
A 1/72 scale diagram of the Martin-Marietta “Zenith Star” experimental space-based laser for the Strategic Defense Initiative.
Download for $3
CAD 002
A 1/24 diagram of the Lockheed “Harvey,” the initial concept for a low radar cross section strike platform that eventually became the F-117.
Download for $3
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CAD 001
A 1/32 diagram of the North American Rockwell D-541-4 “Surprise Fighter” from 1973, an early stealth concept designed to sneak up on Soviet AWACS planes.
Download for $3
Fourteen-year-old Aaron decided to steal his mom’s BMW. She is less than pleased. Ignore the weird face-mangling filter that the sister here uses, and just enjoy the climactic whoopin’.
And here’s a followup video, which goes on for *way* too long and seems to be a long diatribe about social media (I skipped through most of it because… meh).
A double-page spread from Aviation Week in 1967 showing models of various designs leading to the final 747 configuration.
In a sane age, if someone makes an accusation of criminal impropriety against an important political person the accusation is considered to be just an accusation until and unless enough evidence is produced, or sufficiently convincing testimony is given, to justify a rational belief in the accusation. These are not such times. Today, the accusation is all that matters, and in the area of sexual assault allegations, the accusation is so important that mere innocence is no defense.
So… it should be interesting to see how THIS story plays out:
If you want to read the accusation, here it is in all its verbose glory:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Eee4aFavPGM3KVk5Wi9qQzveyeF8Yre6/view
Oddly, the accusation doesn’t yet seem to be lighting up the news networks. It could well be entirely fictional, (perhaps created specifically for the purpose of smearing Cory Booker in advance of his 202 Presidential aspirations). But then, so could any of a number of prior such claims that the media went bugnuts for.
A Rockwell International ad from 1984. It shows a number of Rockwell/North American Aviation products from the past, with a Space Station shown as the future. Interesting to note that the space station we actually got was the *International* space station, not the Rah-Rah-America-Is-Number-One station.
