Moskva sank

 AARRRGH, Hmm..., news, politics, russian empire, ships, weapons, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Apr 142022
 

Two weird things. First this headline…

The Russian military says the damaged Moskva missile cruiser sank while being towed to a port

… is exactly the same text as the complete article:

The Russian military says the damaged Moskva missile cruiser sank while being towed to a port.

So… there ya go, I suppose.

Second: more than a day later and not a single verified image of the thing. How can *nobody* have taken photos pf video of it? Surely there were at least a few commercial satellites passing roughly int he area that took a look. No doubt more than a few recon planes were in the area. The Russians must have had ships in the area, taking pictures to prove it was still on the surface; and doubtless Ukrainians with drones or navalized farm tractors video’ed it to prove that it wasn’t doing so great. But so far as I’ve seen… squadoo. A number or mis-attributed photos and videos of other ships, one craptacular “night vision” video showing… *something.*

 

 Posted by at 8:57 pm

Moskva goes kerblam

 AARRRGH, Crazy, Hmm..., news, politics, russian empire, ships  No Responses »
Apr 132022
 

Whoopsie:

Russian Navy Confirms Severe Damage to Black Sea Cruiser Moskva, Crew Abandoned Ship

The Moskva was (*was*) the most important Russian naval vessel in the Black Sea, until it’s ammunition caught fire. Stories differ about *why* it caught fire… the Ukrainians claim to have struck the ship with missiles, the Russians claim… well, not much.

A day or so ago, the Moskva was going to be a giant threat to the Ukrainians. Now it’s apparently a burning hulk.

A week ago:

Russia’s Most Powerful Warship In The Black Sea Is Operating In A Pattern

Yeah, maybe operating in a predictable pattern isn’t the best idea, especially when you’re in range of people you have pissed off.

 Posted by at 11:44 pm

Large format scans coming in…

 art, awesomeness, drawings, history, new products, news, projects, rockets, ships, spacecraft  No Responses »
Apr 132022
 

The large format rocket & submarine scans I mentioned HERE are starting to come in. The first ~60 scans clock in at a total of about 1 gigabyte… the remaining forty – scanned, but not yet sent to me – total something like 23 gigabytes. Giant full-color blueprints. Woo.

For a limited time, if you would like copies of these scans, the whole batch is $175. If interested, send me an email:

 Posted by at 6:52 pm

America’s first eVTOL vertiport

 aircraft, awesomeness, Hmm..., news  No Responses »
Apr 132022
 

Huh. Right next door:

America’s first electric medical air-travel facility coming to Rock Island

The “The Corporal Jason G. Pautsch Vertiport” has begun construction, with the goal of one megawatt of recharging capability via solar panels to support electric VTOL “air ambulances.” It’s supposed to be completed this year. Whether there’ll actually be any electric VTOL air ambulances for it to service… shrug.

There are of course a number of hospitals in the Quad Cities area, and helicopters are forever zipping back and forth. The idea sounds interesting, but for it to work it’ll need actual rechargeable VTOL aircraft. And it’s also parked right next to the Mississippi River which has a tendency to leap right out of its banks every now and then and say “howdy.” And the skies around here are often covered with clouds, which tend to mess with solar panels. And the company building this, DIFCO, Inc., seems to specialize in historic building preservation… a laudable function, but it’s direct applicability to eVTOL vertiports is not immediately obvious. Maybe they can charge Teslas or something in the interim.

 

 Posted by at 1:34 pm

Another mass shooting to sweep under the rug

 AARRRGH, Crazy, Forward!, Gah., Hmm..., news, politics, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Apr 122022
 

So someone shot up a subway in Brooklyn. Amazingly, nobody was killed, but a lot of people were injured. The shooter seems to have done this for political and/or racial reasons. This is *exactly* the sort of thing that the news media should be all over. Except… this story doesn’t slot into The Narrative. Expect it to quietly evaporate from the headlines. Don’t expect to see marches, protests, riots, burning, looting, murders over this story.

Frank R. James, Brooklyn Person of Interest: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

He’s a black nationalist and a fan of the Nation of Islam. He disliked Trump and white people.

 Posted by at 11:03 pm

Stabbed the “Buy it Now” button

 aircraft, APR, art, eBay, history, Monthly Historical Documents Program, Patreon, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Apr 122022
 

Just bought on ebay, a print of the Boeing “Space Sortie” vehicle.

So much for my “maybe I should spend less in these difficult times” idea. 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 11:09 am

Hahaha… no. NOOOOOO. Nope.

 AARRRGH, Crazy, dumbassery, Gah., news, rockets, science, wisdom, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Apr 122022
 

There are certain things you don’t do. These folks seem to like to do them all.

Company that aims to race SpaceX to Mars plays with fire

They stand RIGHT FREAKIN’ NEXT to a sizable rocket engine as its being tested. With no protective walls, armor or even helmets, gloves or safety glasses. What’s better; the propellants are freakin’ toxic (furfuryl alcohol and nitric acid). They have to flee the cloud of nitric oxides.

The company website has a “Team” page with names and photos of those involved, but no links to their qualifications. This comes across more as a technically aggressive art project than an engineering one. I can appreciate the desire to charge ahead, say damn the safety weenies… but go-fever can get ya killed in some pretty horrifying-yet-entertaining-for-everyone-else ways.

Continue reading »

 Posted by at 2:21 am

Almost exactly eleven years later…

 art, awesomeness, Crazy, history, Hmm..., science fiction, youtube  No Responses »
Apr 122022
 

April 4, 2011, I posted a link to the YouTube video of Orbital’s “The Box” originally from 1996. Through random chance, today (April 12, 2022) I stumbled across another copy of the video, this one at twice the resolution, posted onto YouTube almost exactly one year ago (April 15, 2021). Huh. Well, the commentary I posted way back when still applies: this is an interesting video that shows an unsettling Tilda Swinton moving through a city at a *really* slow pace. The effect being “alienation” or some such.

I first saw this at a weird time in my life, back when MTV still tried to be about music, and it drilled itself directly into my brain where it’s sat ever since. If you haven’t seen it, give it a watch.

 Posted by at 1:20 am
 Older Entries  Newer Entries