Oct 312022
 

Minneapolis looks like… well, “fun” isn’t really the word. After Fentanyl Floyd died there, the protestors wanted less policing and that’s what they got. Look at the utopia that sprang up.

 

 Posted by at 9:56 pm
Oct 312022
 

Back in the Bad Old Days, a whole lot of people were trapped as serfs. While not technically slaves, they kinda were… they were legally trapped onto a particular piece of property and had to work for the landowner (generally some flavor of “nobility”). You could get in a *lot* of trouble if  you just decided to get up and walk twenty miles away. It’s a good thing that that concept is dead and buried. Right?

Right?

Behold the “15-Minute City.” As described on Wikipedia, this is straightforward enough… a form of civic planning where the bulk of your necessities – groceries and such – are available within a short walk (you can walk there in “15 minutes”). It *sounds*… well, maybe sorta kinda nice enough, maybe, on a limited basis; probably more so for people who have never actually known wide open spaces, but there are of course large sections of urban areas where groceries and medicine and whatnot are *not* available anywhere near you. But whether it was the intention of the people behind it or not, the “15-minute city” concept is a lead-in to modern serfdom. Gentlemen, behold:

Anger after travel chief announces traffic filters are ‘going to happen, definitely’ ahead of decision

Mr Enright explained in the Sunday Times that the heart of the traffic filters policy was to turn Oxford into “a 15-minute city” with local services within a small walking radius.

The new traffic filters on St Cross Road, Thames Street, Hythe Bridge Street and St Clements would operate seven days a week from 7am to 7pm.

Two more filters on Marston Ferry Road and Hollow Way would operate from Monday to Saturday.

People can drive freely around their own neighbourhood and can apply for a permit to drive through the filters, and into other neighbourhoods, for up to 100 days per year. This equates to an average of two days per week.

 

Translation: if this comes to pass, people within these “15 minute cities” will only be allowed to freely leave their plots of land 100 days out of the year by means of their own vehicles. Sure, you can walk out… but how far can you walk, carrying all your property? Sure, you can ride public transportation… which goes where it goes, not necessarily where you want to go. And I look forward to seeing people try to carry their beds and fridges and libraries on the bus. And sure, you can leave 100 days out of the year. Then 90. Then 75. Then 50. Then “papers please.”

The process seems to be to slowly acclimate Brits to accept that where they are is where they’ll stay.

Curiously, at the same time the British citizens are being trained to become sedentary, to reduce their horizons to little further than they could throw a rock (not that they’ll be allowed to throw a rock, of curse), they are also being trained to accept that an Englishmans Home Is Not His Castle:

Homeowners are being offered contracts to take in illegal Channel migrants as govt hotel bill rises to £2.4bn-a-year

As Britain continues to be colonized by military age males from the third world, Brits are being conditioned to not only accept these world travelers into their country, but into their homes. Right now the British government is attempting to get this done via bribery. When that fails to take care of the problem, I’ll but utterly unsurprised when eminent domain is used to appropriate second homes, unoccupied apartments and other currently-unoccupied places. And when *that* fails to solve the problem – and why the hell would it, as the British government would be throwing the door open to a full invasion, providing room and board to the latest waves of colonizers – then people who are deemed to have Too Much House will be required to share. Got a barn? Not anymore. Got a spare bedroom? Not anymore. Got a living room? Not anymore.

 

Haha. I got me a 3rd Amendment, chumps!

 Posted by at 11:59 am
Oct 302022
 

The YouTube channel “Found and Explained” just released a video on the 4,000 ton Orion Battleship, with the model used based on my reconstruction from issue V2N2 of “Aerospace Projects Review.” The video was sponsored by a “Star Trek” video game, so there are a *lot* of Star Trek references in the video.

For more information on the project, including blueprints, be sure to check out issue v2N2.

 Posted by at 6:21 pm
Oct 302022
 

A Boeing concept from 1983 for an Orbital Transfer Vehicle. This vehicle would change the orbit of the payload not only propulsively, but by using aerodynamic drag to slow the vehicle at perigee. When returning a payload from geosynchronous orbit, it would dive into the upper atmosphere and use aerodynamic lift and drag to slow into a much lower orbit, with propulsive adjustments to put it into a circular orbit for rendezvous with a space Shuttle for recovery or servicing. This particular design was inflatable (creating a lifting body akin to a stretched-out “ASSET” shape) and used an extendable/stowable nozzle. Note that it is entering “upside down” so that the lift forces generated are trying to force it *closer* to Earth, rather than trying to bounce off the atmosphere.

 

Orbital velocities at geosynchronous are  slower than in low Earth orbit… about half the speed. So a relatively small change in velocity at geosynchronous will turn the circular orbit into a sharply elliptical one, with a perigee close to Earth. But that velocity at perigee is much faster than circular orbit velocity, so shedding speed using “free” aerodynamic forces makes sense… if you can pull it off.

 Posted by at 8:11 am
Oct 292022
 

YouTube is filled to overflowing with “fan edits” of this or that movie, or fan-made videos showing spaceships from Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Battlestar Gallactica, etc. The quality of these vary greatly. Lots are *terrible.* But every now and then, you get THIS:

It’s a reworking of the “launch” scene from Star Trek VI. The original was fine, but this is *way* better. And note that the artist didn’t decide to redesign the Enterprise or Spacedock; he respected the canon.

 Posted by at 3:19 am
Oct 282022
 

Currently on ebay is an aluminum model of a lifting body. The rear of the vehicle is that of the M1 or M2, but the nose is distinctly conical. The lack of useful volume leads me to think that if this is a legit wind tunnel model (rather than something someone just knocked out at a machine shop for giggles), then it’s not a design for a manned vehicle, either test or operational space logistics. Rather it would be something like:

1) A basic subscale research vehicle like ASSET

2) A concept for a maneuverable entry vehicle for a military system. An ICBM warhead, perhaps designed to glide either for range extension, to avoid incoming ABMs, or to maneuver to avoid tracking systems and come in from unexpected directions.

3) Or it’s just a vague, generic “let’s look at everything” shape.

The nose of the model does not inspire a great deal of confidence… it looks a bit unfinished, with some sharp-ish corners that don’t seem like they should be there.

If anyone knows better, by all means speak up…

 

 Posted by at 1:46 pm
Oct 282022
 

There are few facts as yet. Chief among the missing facts are the identity of the attacker and what his motives were. I suspect that those little details will determine if this becomes Big News or just sorta fades away.

Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, attacked with hammer at home

Option A, this becomes Big News: the attacker will prove to be a whacko right winger

Option B, this fades away: the attacker will prove to be a left winger, or a drugged-up nut.

In either event: expect there to be a drive to further increase the security of government officials and their families. This security will doubtless extend to armed guards… armed with the sort of weapons that Speaker Pelosi would use the power of government to prevent *you* from having with which to defend your own family against hammer-wielding nuts.

 

UPDATE:

Well, here we go…

David Depape, Paul Pelosi Suspect: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

David Depape is a Berkeley resident. What are Depape’s politics and was he on social media? On a blog and website, he was fixated on censorship and made anti-Semitic comments. In one post, he ranted about government attempts to control information, calling for the arrest of journalists from prominent news organizations. Online records give Depape’s age as 42.

OK. In some ways, this guys *screams* Left Wing Nut… lives in Berkeley, sells hemp jewelry, hangs out with nudism activists. On the other hand, his views are straight out of Hollywood Central Casting for a Right Wing Nut… ranting about the Jews, Qanon, Covid conspiracies, Commies, Trump support, etc. There’s enough here to paint him as a Far Right Extremist, and so I expect that’ll be the narrative going forward. This story should thus now become Big News. Just in time for the election, as it happens.

 

 

 

 Posted by at 9:25 am
Oct 272022
 

I honestly have no idea what the future of Twitter and other online sewers holds… other than some glorious chaos.

Elon Musk fires Twitter’s top brass after closing $44 billion deal: reports

A source with knowledge of the matter told FOX Business that Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and Vijaya Gadde, head of legal policy, trust, and safety were fired. Musk had accused the three of misleading him and investors over the number of fake accounts on the platform.

Womp-womp.

I would expect to see a series of glitches. Musk has promised to can 75% of the Twitter workforce; I would be unsurprised if they try to sabotage the system on their way out the door. Of course, it is entirely possible that that 75% is made up entirely of B-Arkers, hired not to actually build the code of the app, provide tech support or run the required hardware, but to fill quotas and determine “policies.” The kind of people who banned Trump but kept terrorist groups from Jihadis to Antifa, don’t need to remain in their current position.

 Posted by at 10:01 pm