*Bio* chemistry on Venus?

 awesomeness, Hmm..., news, science  No Responses »
Sep 142020
 

Seems the horrible nightmare of heat and acid that is the atmosphere of Venus has something else: phosphine. This chemical is *usually* a product of biological processes, and is difficult to produce otherwise. The suggestion is made that there is an existing ecosystem of microorganism floating in the clouds of Venus at altitudes where the temperatures are temperate. These likely single-celled organisms would have had to have evolved billions of years ago when Venus was presumably Earth-like, and survived the transition to hellish conditions that now prevail by wafting up into the sky.

Scientists Detect Apparent Signature of Life in Venus’s Atmosphere

What will *probably* end up being the case is that the phosphine is the result of some previously unexpected chemical process involving the heat, pressure and existing soup of horrifying chemicals that make up the land and sky of Venus. But for now, “life” can’t be easily discounted as a possibility.

 Posted by at 2:28 pm

Gaming the game

 art, humor, youtube  No Responses »
Sep 132020
 

I’ve never been too enamored of watching other people play video games. “Watch as I blitz my way through Halo!” Meh. But you know what can be damned entertaining? Someone playing the game *wrong.*

 

 

 Posted by at 1:34 pm

Sure, ok…

 art, history, Hmm..., youtube  No Responses »
Sep 122020
 

An interesting use of computer image manipulation technology. I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but if you want to watch Stalin, Hitler, Tojo, FDR and such singing in harmony… well, today’s your day, I guess.

And because 2020 is – at least until 2021 – peak weird, behold:

 

 Posted by at 9:04 pm

Astra’s first launch failed

 history, Hmm..., news, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Sep 122020
 

As Elon Musk points out… “Rockets are hard.” Having their first vehicle shut down in flight and fall back to Earth is a shame, but it’s not shameful. They did a lot better than many… it didn’t kerblam on the pad.

Astra’s 1st orbital test launch fails during first-stage engine burn

 

 

 Posted by at 1:57 pm

This is why we can’t have anything nice

 dumbassery, Forward!, Hmm..., news, politics, science, spacecraft  No Responses »
Sep 112020
 

NASA has released an interesting Request for Quotes:

Purchase of Lunar Regolith and/or Rock Materials from Contractor

A.The Contractor shall:1.Collect from 50g up to 500g of Lunar regolith and/or rock materials (“Collected Material”) from the surface of the Moon (Luna).a.Be responsible for performing all activities necessary, including:1.Determining method(s), providing and or developing equipment, deployment/launch/landing, and operation of all systems the Contractor’s method(s) requires. (this purchase does not include development, production, or launch of space vehicles)2.Identify, negotiate, and conclude, all necessary agreements and approvals for the Contractor’s method and all associated systems, personnel, and operations.2.Provide imagery to NASA of the collection and the Collected Material, and data that identifies the collection location on the Lunar surface.3.Provide the Collected Material to NASA upon its collection from the Lunar surface by in-place ownership transfer from Contractor to NASA. After ownership transfer the collected material becomes the sole property of NASA for use as NASA may determine.

It seems what NASA wants is for someone to go to the moon and box up samples… and leave then there for later collection. Which seems odd… if NASA is going to send a mission of some kind to the moon to collect those samples, it seems that that mission could probably collect them itself. But perhaps by having one or more rovers trundling around picking up samples from various places and delivering them to a central “depot” for collection, things could work better.

Seems very likely that this sort of thing is in service of preparations for mining operations on the moon… digging up water to service a base, or industrial  elements for lunar or space-based industry, or perhaps even very rare elements for return to Earth. And this is not only fine, this is praiseworthy. Except, of course, to Certain People. You know the kind. The kind who live off Daddy’s Trust Fund and bitch about capitalism over their ten dollar lattes. Behold:

NASA Is Soliciting Bids to Bring Capitalism to the Moon

Article is what you’d expect: “hurr durr, capitalism bad.”

 Posted by at 3:31 pm

The western fires: man-made?

 AARRRGH, Crazy, Forward!, Hmm..., news, politics, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Sep 112020
 

Police arrest Puyallup man for starting large wildfire

The evidence that Antifa is/are starting a substantial number of the fires is not extensive. However… arson is what Antifa does. By starting wildfires they cause chaos and destruction;  they divert resources away from their city-based chaos; they give their fellow travelers in the environmental movement ammunition in their “hurr durr climate change bad” war against capitalism and progress. If leftist terrorists aren’t doing this, you can bet that they wish they were.

If the best way for your ideology to win is through destruction and misery, at some point ya gotta ask “Are we the baddies?”

 

 Posted by at 8:39 am

Electrifying cars

 blather, Hmm...  No Responses »
Sep 102020
 

As you’ll recall from the Disney flick “20,000 Leagues Under The Sea,” one of the defensive features of the submarine Nautilus was the ability to electrify the outer surface. Thus when the sub was boarded by a bunch of cannibals while high-centered on a coral reef, Captain Nemo threw a switch and the invaders got electrozapped until they retreated off the boat.

Watching recent episodes of criminals in the street swarming cars and preventing them from proceeding, it occurs to me that the ability to flip a switch and electrify the outer panels of the vehicle might be a useful ability. Someone throws themselves onto your vehicle, you could gently persuade them with 50,000 volts of persuasion to get *off* your vehicle. Is this a practical possibility? Would it require so much modification so as to be essentially a whole new vehicle? I kinda think you’d have to have a non-conductive fiberglass skin with metal studs every few centimeters, each pair connected to a reduced-power version of a stun gun. Modern computer and sensor systems would allow the system to select which set of studs to electrify based on pressure; Tesla-level cameras and whatnot should allow the system to *see* where threats are and adjust the Dumbass Deflector accordingly. That seems like a whole lot of bother to go to, but as we start slipping deeper into the Cthulhu Era, this sort of thing might be more and more reasonable.

Alternatives to electrification:

  1. Skin panels that get real hot. 200F should probably do it. Energy intensive.
  2. Skin panels that vibrate unpleasantly. Probably noisy and heavy.
  3. Skin panels that “sweat.” Anything from simple water to skunk stank.
  4. Combine 1 and 4: skin panels that emit hot steam. This could be simplified with discrete emitters underneath or between panels. Especially around the front grill, which is where most of the problems lie anyway.
  5. Skin panels that project small, short points, like thumbtacks. Heavy again.
  6. Back to 3… but it sweats *glue.* If they’re going to plop themselves onto your car, making them stick there could prove entertaining, if probably illegal. But here’s the thing: if it’s illegal for *you* to detain them, why isn’t it illegal for them to detain *you*?
 Posted by at 11:53 pm
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