And saw as wise Batmans policy in the “Justice League” animated TV series for having plans in place for dealing with superpowered heroes in case hey ever turned.
“Brghtburn” is a “well, break out the kryptonite-laced nukes” argument.
Dec 092018
Dec 082018
For nearly sixty years, this would have been a perfectly cromulent advertisement. But now that “Baby, Its Cold Outside” has been MeToo’ed, it is suddenly Very Bad via guilt by association.
For those that are complaining Baby it’s Cold Outside is misogynistic (my favorite word!🙄) have you actually seen the 1949 Neptune’s daughter premiere of the song? I’m claiming misandry for Red Skelton!😤🤣😂 https://t.co/bYvhvJxJR1
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) December 3, 2018
Dec 072018
The Goodyear Inflatoplane, a crude inflatable aircraft from the 1950s, is often described in mocking terms, as if the whole concept is laughable. And yet… it worked. It didn’t work *great,* but it was a simple plane to fly and operate and would have been relatively cheap to build. It could of course fold up into a small space. Repairs could doubtless be achieved often enough with duct tape. I have often thought that a modernized Inflatoplane, with modern materials, an improved engine, smaller, lighter instruments, could well find an impressive market. Imagine a two seat aircraft with the performance of a Piper Cub that you could carry in a truck or an SUV. An aircraft such as this could take off and land from runways, roads, fields, ice, snow and quite possibly water.
The structural material that the aircraft was made from, “airmat,” was a simple rubberized fabric. Two layers were separated by a few inches, held in place by a multitude of simple threads. Once pressurized, the structure would hold its shape and turned out to have just about the highest strength to weight ratio of any “beam” type structure imaginable. Doubtless this could be improved somewhat with modern materials… instead of rubber and nylon, perhaps some form of teflon and carbon fiber/kevlar might cut weight, add strength, reduce packaged size and keep cost reasonably low. Modern propulsion systems, from improved props and internal combustion engines to hybrid systems to all-electric systems, could cut weight and cost while increasing range.
It seems to me that an aircraft of this kind should be mass producible on large scale at a low price. Heck: share the production line with civilian and military variants. Along with transporting troops and the like, an inflatable aircraft such as this would have a structure that should be virtually invisible to radar; repackage the propulsion system into a low RCS configuration and you could have a drone that could be packed three or four per Hummer and flown around over relatively modern enemy airspace, unseen.
Dec 072018
China Launches 1st Mission to Land on the Far Side of the Moon
A Long March 3B has launched the Chang’e 4 probe towards the moon, where if all goes well it will land a stationary base and a rover on the far side of the moon in early January (likely in the Von Kármán Crater). It will communicate with Earth via a comsat placed at the L2 point beyond the moon back in May.
Good luck to ’em. But where are the *fleets* of far side probes that NASA should have launched by now?
Dec 072018
K-Pop Sensation BTS Wins Reader’s Poll for TIME Person of the Year
I bet there was some sort of campaign for this. Perhaps 4chan colluded with the Russians…
Dec 072018
A NASA model circa 1959 illustrating the general configuration of a nuclear-electric spacecraft for the exploration of Mars. While apparently not meant to represent a serious design proposal, the general configuration is much the same as those created decades later. It features a nuclear reactor at the nose, a long boom with a pair of radiators to get rid of the heat produced by the reactor, and payload at the tail. Payload includes crew areas and an indistinct lander. The ring at the rear is the “propellant accelerator,” which is not described; presumably it is a structural ring holding a bank of ion engines or the like.
Note that the radiators are tapered. This is common in such designs: the gamma ray and neutron shields behind the reactor only block a relatively small portion of the emitted radiation. The radiators fit within that shadowed cone; if the radiators projected out into the unshielded volume, not only could the radiation do some damage to the structural materials it would also heat them up… defeating the whole point of radiators.
This basic layout would still be applicable today, with the main difference being that the engines might well be located elsewhere, firing in a different direction. The reactor could well be at the tail; leaving the engines where they are would turn the long boom into a structure in tension, meaning that the reactor would be “hanging” down. This would be structurally more efficient… after all, the reactor could certainly hang from a string, but a ship could hardly push on a string. Or the engines could be located near the ships center of gravity, firing “sideways.” This would be trickier for the boom, but if the engines are indeed low-thrust ion engines, the forces involved would be almost negligible. Or with a similar arrangement the ship could be made to tumble end over end; with the engines at the CG they could continue to fire “sideways” while the crew enjoyed at least some measure of artificial gravity.
Dec 072018
A bobcat kitten made the local news two nights in a row. First night it had gotten into a chickencoop; the owners called the authorities who hustled it out of the coop and sent it on its way. The next day… it came back and started gnawing upon the chickens. This time they caught the kitten and transported it elsewhere. Gotta respect the little fellers spirit.
Do NOT pet the kitty.
Dec 062018
Ain’t nuthin’ about this story that *isn’t* NSFW. Also… not safe for “eyes,” “peace of mind,” “sanity,” “stiffies,” etc. Consequently, I’ve put it behind the “continue” line.
Dec 052018
Well, poop.
After 26 straight successes, SpaceX fails to land Falcon 9 it wanted back
One of the grid fins got stuck, and at a bad angle. This imparted a pretty unfortunate roll, causing the booster to miss the landing pad. In fact, it missed Florida and landed in the Atlantic, not far from shore… crashed down, fell over *then* sank into the swamp. Fortunately the mission itself is, so far, successful, with the Dragon space capsule delivered to the proper orbit. This version of the Dragon will, hopefully, soon be transporting astronauts to the Space Station. Chances are that the booster is trashed, but not *destroyed.* So it will be recovered, analyzed and fixes made.
Dec 052018
Some might consider this… a little odd: