The question, of course, is “what happens to flesh when you stick it behind a rocket engine?”
Jan 282022
Jan 272022
“Three days before the Peacemaker premiere our [Scandinavian] booking agency [United Stage] dropped us from their roster because there was too little interest in the band,” singer Åge Sten Nilsen (aka “Glam”) said in a recent interview with Billboard. “I told them, maybe they should wait a couple of days … But they didn’t.”
Jan 272022
So, as Los Angeles and other localities allow criminality to skyrocket, new stories get crazier and crazier. Recently it was reported how trains are being robbed in broad daylight, with the thieves turning the region into a third world garbage pit. It got worse: the same spot saw a train derail, possibly because of all the garbage left on the tracks:
Freight train derails in Lincoln Heights
In Lincoln heights at the site of many recent train robberies a train appears to have derailed… pic.twitter.com/23SheGikrM
— Mike Ade (@bellikemike) January 15, 2022
The local and state government have proven wholly unwilling to deal with the issue. But trains are almost definitionally inter-state commerce, so couldn’t the federal government swoop in? Granted, that would require that the FBI be able and willing to do its job, the Justice Department willing to prosecute *actual* criminals, the government as a whole being full of people willing to uphold the Constitution and their oaths of office. So… yeah, maybe not so likely to happen, or at least happen effectively. But at least theoretically, shouldn’t the FBI, ATF, IRS, DOT and just about every other Alphabet Agency be on the job here, ready to swoop in, snatch train robbers, and send them to some FPMITA Prison for a term of decades?
Jan 272022
So, remember how I was saying “Wu Flu infections are up, but actual deaths are stable, so it seems that things are kinda ok?”
Snerk.
First: Infections. It looks like the latest spike has peaked in the US (though obviously not in the EU).
So, huzzah. The latest version of “worst” is over, right?
Welllll…
A fairly straight upwards line for the past three weeks. Neato.
It has also been freakin’ cold in much of the US the last few weeks. Given how enthusiastic the US system is to report any death even remotely related to Pinko Pox as caused by it, it would be interesting – and rational – to try to correlate Commie Cough deaths with flu, pneumonia and other winter maladies. Further interestingness might be had by trying to discern how much of this might be caused by people not turning up their thermostats as high as they might due to the much higher energy costs. I know it’s often pretty frigid in *this* house, because my monthly gas and electric bills have doubled compared to a year ago. Interesting, that.
Jan 262022
NASA has released a visualization of the Eta Carinae Homonculus nebula, creating a 3D simulation of it. One would imagine that with a decent 3D printer, access to the 3D model and some artistry, someone could make a decent-sized lamp based on this. Printed in transparent resin with appropriate thicknesses and areas of translucent dyes, filled with LEDs, such a lamp could sit on a desktop or hang from a ceiling like a chandelier.
Jan 262022
Below is one of the diagrams that I used to help create “Lockheed SR-71: Origins and Evolution.” It is a Lockheed diagram taken from a CIA report showing the D-21 drone atop an M-21 mothership… basically a two-seat version of the A-12 spyplane. The D-21 program as a whole was a dismal failure, but launching it from the back of a manned Mach 3 aircraft proved to be fatal. Still, the D-21, for all the trouble it had, was an impressive piece of work; had there been more of a drive to make it work, doubtless Lockheed would have made it into a successful recon platform. But the time, effort and expense just didn’t compare well to results from spy satellites, and the program was ended. A number of airframes have been preserved, and there have been attempts to resurrect them for use as experimental platforms.
The full-rez diagram has been uploaded to the 2022-01 APR Extras folder on Dropbox. This is available to all $4 and up Patrons and Subscribers. 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.
I plan on uploading a number of the diagrams, art and whatnot that I used to create the CAD diagrams in “SR-71” the the APR extras Dropbox in the coming months.
Jan 252022
I have high hopes that this story is accurately reported. The idea of a dinky little destroyer crewed by pissed off Poles harassing the Bismark is just too freakin’ awesome.
Jan 252022
Jan 242022
This thing looks like it’s out of a sci-fi flick. Specifically, a sci-fi flick where the VFX people were told to ignore the laws of physics.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CXt-uFYNVfL/
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Jan 232022
State Department reduces staff at US embassy in Ukraine, orders some family members to leave
“On January 23, 2022, the Department of State authorized the voluntary departure of US direct hire employees and ordered the departure of eligible family members from Embassy Kyiv due to the continued threat of Russian military action,” the State Department said in a statement. “US citizens in Ukraine should consider departing now using commercial or other privately available transportation options.”
Given the crappy job the State Department did in warning Americans to bug out of Afghanistan, this announcement is indicative of either “holy crap this is bad” or “let’s over-react.” I could go with either.
As an aside: I’ve always seen it spelled “Kiev.” When did it become “Kyiv?”
Anyway, I’m just glad that we have such stellar leadership just now, smart and awake like no administration ever before.