The most useless machine in the universe. So far.

 art, Hmm..., science, youtube  No Responses »
Nov 022022
 

A gearbox with a gear ratio of ten to the power of 169. The last gear will *never* turn once; it’s unlikely to turn even a detectable amount. Not just because there are probably no plans to hook the *first* gear up to a perpetual motion machine, but the fact that mo matter how fast it’s spun, that last gear will succumb to proton decay before it could turn the least bit. never mind the fact that it’s made of plastic and will crumble to dust in less than geological timescales.

Someone will doubtless improve upon this.

 Posted by at 1:13 am

Offensive humor

 AARRRGH, blather, dumbassery, Forward!, humor, politics, science, wisdom, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Nov 012022
 

This guy tells a joke, the short from of which is that learning about science in school is useless, because he didn’t become a scientist. Now it could well be that he doesn’t actually believe that; perhaps a longer video with more context has him redeem himself later. But the basic notion expressed here grates on me more than a lame joke by an unknown standup comic really aught to. It would be better by far for kids to learn about science and math and then have them not go into STEM fields, than to replace science and math with the latest trendy identity politics subjects. Because even if the kids *do* go into the fields of gender studies or LGBTQ studies or racial grievance activism… society is *worse* off. Learning math helps a kid order their mind. Learning science helps a kid learn skepticism. Learning critical race theory helps a kid become a racist monster. Learning about the latest innovation in pronoun-invention helps a kid become schizophrenic and sterile.

 Posted by at 8:20 am

Didn’t quite stick the landing

 AARRRGH, aircraft, news, politics, russian empire, weapons, youtube  No Responses »
Nov 012022
 

A Mil-8 got thwacked by a MANPAD and set alight. It flew in a controlled and sensible manner for a lot longer than I would have expected given that it seemed to be a raging inferno, but the end was kind of a bummer for the crew. I suspect the passengers were already out of the picture by that point. Gotta wonder why the pilot kept it in the air that long. I would have thought “Ground. Now.” would have been the overriding priority.

 

 Posted by at 2:00 am

APR Rewards: October 2022

 aircraft, APR, art, CAD diagrams, history, Monthly Historical Documents Program, new products, Patreon, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Nov 012022
 

The October 2022 rewards are available for APR Patrons and Subscribers. This latest package includes:

Large format art: A Bell Aerospace painting of the D188A VTOL fighter/bomber

Document: “Standard Aircraft Characteristics – Convair Class VF Seaplane Night Fighter (SKATE)” diagrams and data for seaplane jet fighter

Document: “21St Century Aerospace – The 20th Century Challenge,” General Dynamics presentation, late 80’s about hypersonics/NASP. From photographs.

Document: “Prototype X-14 VTOL Aircraft,” Bell Aerospace presentation, 1971, on the “SeaKat” operational naval VTOL. From photos, but art and diagrams were also scanned for clarity.

CAD Diagram ($5 and up): XB-70 Valkyrie forward fuselage configuration

 

If you would like to help fund the acquisition and preservation of such things, along with getting high quality scans for yourself, please consider signing on either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program. Back issues are available for purchase by patrons and subscribers.



 Posted by at 1:30 am
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