Ye gods, nearly forty years old. I remember our whole family laughing our asses off at this.
Mar 072022
Mar 062022
The hope among many is that the sanctions on Russia will cause the Russian people, or business class, or military, or *somebody* to pull their thumbs out and give Putin the boot. And it’s starting to look like those sanctions are really making a mess of sizable chunks of the Russian economy and daily life. but… as has been noted here and elsewhere, many, MANY times… Russians are kinda used to trouble. No boom today. boom tomorrow. Always boom tomorrow. Consequently, if the Russian government can adequately spin this mess as being the fault of EEEEVIL westerners, rather than their our bad behavior, chances are pretty good that the Russian people will simply muddle through as they’ve always done. The effects of sanctions are hardly likely to make things worse in Russia than they were during the Soviet years, at leas after the initial confusion settles down, and Russians lived under communism for 70 years without overthrowing their dictators.
Some relevant videos on the subject. The first one is the source of the title of the post:
The next one, if the translation is to be believed (I don’t speak Russian beyond “blyat” and “suka,” so for all I know they’re actually debating the merits of Cardi B vs. Justin Bieber), is some rather brave soul doing vox pop in Russia, showing locals photos of the attacks in Ukraine. A distressing number think – or at least express – that Putin is doing the right thing. Disturbing that the dangerhaired girl is on the side of right and reason here…
Mar 062022
A few more items I’ve recently paid for that will appear on the APR Patreon/Monthly Historical Documents Program catalog:
1) General Dynamics report “Technical Proposal for Advanced Exhaust Nozzle System Concepts,” 1977 designs for advanced fighters
2) “NASA Aeronautics,” 1974
3) NASA Facts – “The Jupiter Pioneers”
4) “Cessna EV-37E STOL” report, 1964
5) Cessna 407A: report on the proposed but unbuilt 407A transport derivative of the T-37
6) Cessna AT-37E STOL: report on attack variant
7) Cessna YAT-37D counter-insurgency airplane report
Also purchased were a large number of vintage “Space World,” “Aviation News” and “Interavia” magazines for research and “Extras” purposes.
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.
Mar 052022
Most videos showing helicopters, either Ukrainian or Russian, getting shot down are from such a long distance that you can’t really see anything. but the video below is reasonably clear; the Hind takes a Stinger (or perhaps a Javelin) straight to the engines and promptly plummets from the sky. A bad few seconds for the crew. Of course, the possibility always exists that this is yet another computer simulation, but it certainly looks realistic.
Mar 052022
Huh. Turns out that “Nosferatu” premiered 100 years ago yesterday. It remains one of the best – certainly one of the creepiest – vampire movies. It is responsible for some of the common tropes of vampires; prior to this movie, sunlight did not kill vampires, only weakened them. After this movie, vampire go POOF when sunlight hits them.
Max Schrecks portrayal of Count Orloc (Dracula) is damned otherworldly, and to my mind was always one of the more accurate to the Bram Stoker novel. Bela Lugosi did a fine enough job turning vampires into “romantic” figures, but up through Stoker and Nosferatu, vampires were undead beasts of filth and corruption, fundamentally different sorts of things to what vampires are now generally portrayed as. There was nothing redeemable or respectable or admirable or desirable about vampires, and “Nosferatu” knocked it out of the park getting that right.
It’s a shame that the 2000 film “Shadow of the Vampire” has not been released on Blu Ray, though it’s available on DVD. It’s a fictionalization of the making of “Nosferatu” starring John Malkovich as director F.W. Murnau and Willem Freakin’ Dafoe as Max Schreck. It is substantially awesome.
Mar 052022
Yeesh, I am *terrible* at advertising. Just realized I missed reporting on *several* months worth of rewards packages for APR patrons and Monthly Historical Documents program subscribers.
December 2021 rewards:
Document: “B-52G Advanced Configuration Mockup inspection,” Boeing presentation on the design of the then-new B-52G configuration
Document: “Performance Potential Hydrogen Fueled, Airbreathing Cruise Aircraft, Final report, Volume I, Summary” 1966 Convair report on hydrogen fueled hypersonic jetliners
Document: “Integral Launch and Reentry Logistics System” late-60’s Space Division of North American Rockwell presentation on very early Space Shuttle-type systems
Art: Large format McDonnell Douglas DC-10 cutaway
CAD Diagram: Convair MA-1 pod for B-58
January 2022 rewards:
Document: “The Configuration of the European Spaceplane Hermes,” 1990 conference paper on the unbuilt French spaceplane
Document: “Space Rescue Charts,” 1965 USAF presentation charts describing space “life rafts” and shelters
Document: Two nuclear-powered car brochures… Ford “Gyron” and Ford “Seattle-ite XXI”
Diagram: “AGM28 Hound Dog Missile,” North American Aviation informational graphic
CAD Diagram: Boeing MX-1965 missile
February 2022 Rewards:
Diagram: Boeing 720-022 model diagram, United Airlines configuration
Document: Aerojet Ordnance Company brochure, describes aircraft ammo
Document: “The Nova (Liquid) Vehicle a Preliminary Project Development Plan,” October 1961 NASA-MSFC report on facilities planning for the “Saturn C-8” configuration of the Nova vehicle
Document: “Ground Handling Equipment and Procedures for a X-15 Research Aircraft Project 1226,” 1955 North American Aviation report on the early B-36-launched design for the X-15
CAD Diagram: F-111 Escape capsule
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.
Mar 052022
In recent decades we’ve seen lots of places go up in flames. But the war in Ukraine just *seems* different. Why? For some people on the left, the answer is easy: Ukraine is “white people.” But to me, it’s something else: Ukraine – the country, the buildings, the infrastructure, the culture, the cars, buildings, fashions, the STUFF – looks like *here.* All the wars in recent years have taken place in places that don’t look like here. They look like desert countries with lax building standards, or steamy jungles, or barely iron-age villages. But Ukraine? It looks like Illinois or Iowa.
It’s also winter. When was the last time you saw war in recognizable winter, apart from grotty Afghan mountains?
And Ukraine isn’t the only place affected that looks like here. The video below is from Russia (somewhere… it seems to be a big place), the YouTuber goes from gas station to gas station checking current gas prices. And honestly, I’d *love* to find gas going for the prices he’s paying… less than two bucks a gallon? Yes please! But something that struck me was when he went into the gas station/quick mart, it looked indistinguishable from the ones that dot Americas highways.
When China launches its invasion of Taiwan, there will likely be a lot of the same “hey, that reminds me of here” that was generally lacking from middle eastern and African conflicts. And like it or not, people empathize far more with places that remind them of home.
Mar 042022
And this was *Texas.*
UNT MASS STUDENT PSYCHOSIS #TXLEGE #GOP #UNT @YctUnt @kelly_neidert @UNTPrez @UNTnews pic.twitter.com/ysu7W4IRTb
— Current Revolt (@CurrentRevolt) March 4, 2022
How much did Mom, Dad and the taxpayers have to pay to send these lunatics to university?
An explanation of this extrusion of Clown World into reality:
Mar 042022
Something the Ukrainians are doing is broadcasting photos and videos of captured and killed Russians. I keep hearing that it is a violation of the Geneva convention – or is in some way a war crime – to release photos or videos of prisoners/ corpses that leaves the face identifiable. I don’t doubt this, and I can see the point of it… but *how* can this be a war crime for civilians, when it’s typically not illegal to broadcast photos and videos of criminals or accident victims? Is it illegal if the Ukrainian army or civilian government does it, but not if some average Joe does it?
Mar 042022
An advantage of being an APR patron or Monthly Historical Documents Program subscriber is that I give subscribers/patrons the opportunity to help out with various crowdfunding opportunities. As probably surprises nobody, I buy a *lot* of aerospace documentation off of eBay. Most of the time, it comes straight out of my pocket… but sometimes, I call for assistance. Some items start off terribly expensive; some items start off inexpensive, but you can tell right off that they are going to explode in price in the end. Such was the case with a recent item, a vintage 1961 North American Aviation report on development plans for the supersonic transport. It was described as being 97 pages in length, was shown to include diagrams showing conversion of the B-70 into an SST testbed, and *could* be filled with all kinds of good stuff. The initial bid was *cheap.* But I knew it would go for much more, so I contacted my patrons/subscribers and brought on board enough pledges to make a last minute kinda-nutty bid. A bid that won, but not by a whole lot. But won it did, so not all of those funders will receive a complete set of high-rez scans. Some pledged to contribute more than the price I’d asked for, which turned out to be very helpful in getting that successful last-minute bid. Those higher-level funders will get some extra rewards.
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.
