A life worthy of note

 art, history  No Responses »
Dec 242018
 

Listening to NPR in the car today, they actually celebrated the life of someone who actually did something useful. Usually NPR is forever droning on and on about someone who wrote a book of suicidally dull poetry or  is studying the ways in which the cis-het white patriarchy is oppressing repeat reverse trans-speciesists or some other damn whackadoodle thing, but this time they found someone who was actually worthy of note. Charles Harrison was an industrial designer who used his dyslexia as a tool, rather than an excuse: he used it to help him design things that would need no complex instructions to use, things that would improve lives. He was apparently responsible for the creation of plastic garbage cans. This might not sound like much, but the things are *everywhere.* They have functionally replaced the metal trash cans of my young… loud clanky things forever getting rusted out and busted up, difficult to haul around to anyone not up to hauling by main force a giant inconvenient bucket of steaming hot rancid week-old rubbish.

A number of examples of his art are available HERE. The art style is archaic in a way… but also terribly iconic. Industrial designers from circa WWII into probably the 1970s all used this style, and it just screams “class.” An interesting interview with him is HERE.

 Posted by at 7:39 pm

APR Historical Documents: December 2018

 aircraft, APR, awesomeness, drawings, history, new products, Patreon, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Dec 242018
 

2018-12 Rewards are now available for downloading for APR Historical Documents subscribers. This month the rewards include:

1: A large document: “Sea Launch and Recovery of Very Large Rocket Vehicles,” a 1962 Aerojet report on the sea Dragon concept

2: “Ryan Aeronautical Company Plane Portraits,” information, photos and three-views of a sizable range of Ryan aircraft, manned and unmanned

3: “Nova,” a blueprint of the NASA “Saturn C-8” launch vehicle with 8 F-1 engines

4: CAD diagrams: Star Raker scrap views

If you are interested in signing up, you can do so either at Patreon or directly through PayPal. Signing up now makes you eligible for rewards starting with the *next* months rewards. The directly-through-PayPal system is new; it would probably be best to sign up after the first of the month.

 Posted by at 6:16 pm

Slight problem with the scientific methodology

 aircraft, awesomeness, Hmm..., humor, science  No Responses »
Dec 232018
 

Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma when jumping from aircraft: randomized controlled trial

People just *assume* that you’d be much better off jumping from an airplane with a parachute rather than an empty backpack. But is that true? Some researchers did a study to find out and have published the results in the prestigious “The BMJ” (formerly “British Medical Journal”).

Abstract

Objective To determine if using a parachute prevents death or major traumatic injury when jumping from an aircraft.

Design Randomized controlled trial.

Setting Private or commercial aircraft between September 2017 and August 2018.

Participants 92 aircraft passengers aged 18 and over were screened for participation. 23 agreed to be enrolled and were randomized.

Intervention Jumping from an aircraft (airplane or helicopter) with a parachute versus an empty backpack (unblinded).

Main outcome measures Composite of death or major traumatic injury (defined by an Injury Severity Score over 15) upon impact with the ground measured immediately after landing.

Results Parachute use did not significantly reduce death or major injury (0% for parachute v 0% for control; P>0.9). This finding was consistent across multiple subgroups. Compared with individuals screened but not enrolled, participants included in the study were on aircraft at significantly lower altitude (mean of 0.6 m for participants v mean of 9146 m for non-participants; P<0.001) and lower velocity (mean of 0 km/h v mean of 800 km/h; P<0.001).

Read further at the link for details. See if you can spot the minor issue that *may* have contributed to this perhaps surprising result.

 

 Posted by at 2:30 pm

Xmas

 art, awesomeness, Forward!, humor, politics, youtube  No Responses »
Dec 232018
 

I gather there’s a Culturally Important Holiday coming up. Rather than going to  the bother of slapping a lot of digital decorations up around the blog, I’ll just cheap out and post some videos to  traditional “carols” and animated holiday specials.

 

 

 

 

 Posted by at 11:29 am

A Dramatic Reading

 blather, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Hmm..., humor, Patreon, politics, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Dec 222018
 

So, *this* story continues to stumble along. There was a phone call between a content creator and the person responsible for the situation; a transcript of the call was somehow made. And while a transcript is fine, a recording of the call would be better. But the demand was made at the top of the call that no recording of the call was allowed. So, the next best thing: a dramatic reading of the transcript. note: you may scare your pets laughing at this.

FYI:



 Posted by at 6:15 pm

Anyone recognize this Navaho model?

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, history, Hmm..., models, nukes, rockets  No Responses »
Dec 222018
 

I was sent this photo of a large scale model of the North American SM-64 “Navaho” two-stage cruise missile. The model, largely made from clear plexiglas, was some years ago on display in a Quonset hut at the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, California. Sometime after this photo was taken the museum was shut down, reworked and re-opened, and after that the museum was no longer in evidence. The photographer wishes to know what became of this model. Anyone know?

 Posted by at 4:59 pm

Least accurate headline of the day

 art, awesomeness, dumbassery, Gah., history, Meh., science fiction, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Dec 222018
 

Just WTF…

The True Story of the Lost Sci-Fi Movie ‘Brainstorm,’ Natalie Wood’s Last Film

It had big stars, it foretold virtual reality, and the director was the special-effects wizard behind 2001: A Space Odyssey. So why have you never heard of this movie?

Ummm… I saw it on HBO back in the day. I bought it on DVD years ago, and on Blu Ray a year or two back. I’ve mentioned it on this blog before, and discussed it with friends. How is it “lost,” and how is it that I’ve “never heard of this movie?”

Feh. Friggen’ clickbait…

Here. Buy it. Watch it. Love it.

 

 Posted by at 12:11 pm

That’s a lotta rockets

 art, history, models, nukes, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Dec 222018
 

There are a vast number of heavy lift launch vehicles that have been designed over the years, but I think I’ve captured a pretty good selection here. Two of them, the Douglas ROOST and the Martin RENova, are depicted with their recovered configurations, but if models were made these options would likely not be included. They were done for future diagramming purposes. All of the models here are pretty basic, missing a whole lot of detail; I put these together quickly to check out scale and judge interest.

 Posted by at 1:57 am

Like “The Happening,” but it doesn’t suck

 art, awesomeness, blather, Crazy, Hmm..., religion, science fiction  No Responses »
Dec 212018
 

Ten years ago I posted a review of the execrable movie “The Happening.” It was just so very, very wrong on every level.  Today I watched a movie that is quite similar in basic concept, yet is infinitely superior: “The Bird Box,” now out on Netflix.

What both flicks share: there is a mysterious force that is causing people to suddenly suicide themselves to death, and the characters are not the Great Heroes who figure out the thing and solve the problem, but rather are just schmoes trying to survive. But one of the great flaws of “The Happening” is avoided by “The Bird Box:” there’s no explanation made. In TH, the insultingly stupid explanation is that plants are annoyed with humanities hijinks and have spontaneously evolved the ability to emit a Suicide Gas. In TBB, there are some sort of “creatures”that if you look at them, you go buggo and kill yourself. It’s still a silly premise, but it’s wisely a premise that doesn’t get answered. Are the creatures aliens? Demons?  Ghosts? Some escaped bioweapon? It’s left unclear. Since there is no good explanation for such a nonsensical effect, leaving things unexplained is the precisely proper way to go.

TBB does a good job of maintaining an air of doom and horror. Unlike TH, there is a distinct hint of Lovecraftian cosmic horror here: there’s no fighting the monsters, only avoiding them and their influence. The monsters don;t rip and tear; they make people do themselves in. The focus isn’t on showing innovative ways for people to kill themselves, but people being horrified by and confused about what’s going on. Additionally, there is one group of people who are sorta immune: crazy whackos. This fits in with Lovecraft, and is distinctly unhelpful for the survivors. You never see the creatures, but you see how someone who has seen them depicts them… and these images would fit in with the standard mythos critters.

Sandra Bullock is the main character, an uncharacteristically unsympathetic mother-figure. She’s a bit unpleasant as a person and a mother, but not outright villainous… just not the usual perfect person. She ends up with two infants, which in her finite motherhood, names them Girl and Boy… probably because she doesn’t actually expect them to live long in this unfortunate new world, so why get attached?

The basic concept is of course silly, like any supernatural horror movie. But unlike “The Happening,” “The Bird Box” was effective horror and was entirely serious, with little in the way of goofiness.

 

 

 Posted by at 9:34 pm
 Older Entries  Newer Entries