Where some computer graphics experts try to figure out what’s going on in a 5-hour time lapse video that shows an anomalous high altitude *something.* Interesting to watch them go from “what could it be” to “oh, it’s probably this.”
Jan 222022
Jan 212022
The world can usually be approximated to adequate accuracy with a small number of generally simply equations. Go this fast off a ramp at that angle, you will get so high, and land at such a distance. Easy. *Precise* trajectory can be calculated with more inputs… drag calculations, usually, adjustments for wind, that sort of thing. But for first approximations, the math is pretty easy.
Life is hard when you choose not to do the math.
Feel free to either wince or laugh. Either’s good. Both are good.
Shockingly, the guy didn’t die. At least not that time. But he did learn an important lesson: not doing the math *and* not having insurance? Why, that adds up to a million dollars in medical bills.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh55zvXg8vE
But his record seems to indicate a lack of foresight. A prior set of “stunts” that resulted in… well, reality, good and hard.
Jan 212022
Jan 212022
And yet I can define a sphere. One way to define it: “an object in three dimensional space with a single surface, every point on the surface being the same distance from a single 3D point.” Or, “a three-dimensional object that has the property of any 2-dimensional slice through it, no matter the angle, being a circle.” Or… “a ball.” Many ways to define the same thing. What’s the point of this silly exercise? Madness, that’s what. Society is being turned upside down to coddle silly weirdos who believe that a humans cannot define something that they are not.
Requisite virtue signalling: you want to be trans, you go right ahead. No skin off my nose if you want to dress up as something you’re not, or take hormones, or have surgeries. Knock yourself out. But when you start telling me that I have to *not* see such things as strange, that I have to change the way I speak and *think,* and that the stupid, ill-formed notions of *children* need to be taken as divine writ… bite me. Some six-year-old declares that he is a she? Uh-huh. I vaguely recall that when I was that age I wanted to be and/or was a squirrel. Such things are to be expected from children, who are largely loaded down with truckloads of imagination and a ziplock baggie of experience and data.
I retain the suspicion that if certain relatively recent changes to the chemistry of food and the environment in the US – the weird hormone-simulants in plastics, birth control pills and the like in the water supply, corn syrup in everything, Odin knows what all in pollutants, etc. – a lot of this trans-mania will fade away. This will leave a lot of people looking at themselves and wondering “what have I done?”
And then the question will be: if changing the composition of plastics will lead to the “deletion” of 90% of a currently favored group by making those people not want to be a part of that group anymore, but to be normal again… will changing that plastic now be considered tantamount to genocide?
Jan 212022
A NASA video from four years ago describing how a Certain Volcanic Island near Tonga arose and against all odds survived the battering of the sea.
Whoops.
Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai is the first island of this type to erupt and persist in the modern satellite era, it gives scientists an unprecedented view from space of its early life and evolution. The new study offers insight into its longevity and the erosion that shapes new islands. Understanding these processes could also provide insights into similar features in other parts of the solar system, including Mars.
Also:
Jan 202022
Under cover of darkness no less.
Theodore Roosevelt statue removed from front of NYC’s Museum of Natural History
At least it’s not going to be melted down, but instead sent to North Dakota.
A modest proposal: relocate all of the statues, pre-modern art and historical/science museums from the coasts into the interior (“flyover country”), and relocate all the hippies and “social justice” and “mostly peaceful” protestors from the interior to the coasts. The National Air and Space Museum can be split between the SAC museum in Nebraska and the USAF Museum in Ohio; perhaps some can go to the Wings over the Rockies museum in Colorado.
And then relocate all the gender/ethnic studies programs from the interior colleges and universities to the coastal ones; all of the STEM studies from the coasts to the interior. Trust, me, *everyone* involved would be happier.
Jan 202022
World’s First Space-Based Entertainment Studio To Launch In 2024; S.E.E. Unveiled As Studio Behind Tom Cruise Space Film
Their plan is to launch a *studio* to the ISS in 2024, and then separate it from the ISS to become a free-flying platform in 2028.
How serious are they? Dunno. Will it come to pass? Dunno. Is it frivolous, compared to the likes of space telescopes, missions to the Moon, Mars colonization? Definitely. Is it a good idea? If it is carried out honestly, with a proper budget and engineering rigor… you damn betcha it’s a good idea. This sort of thing should help spur not only direct improvements in space technologies such as life support, launch and the understanding of how regular folk do in microgravity, it should also help spur general interest in space. If the “studio” mechanically works well, it could lead to practical space hotels and other space-based commercial enterprises.
Assuming, of course, it’s not a disaster. Videos of Tom Cruise turning various shades of green and spewing nonstop for weeks on end might not be so great. But say what you will about Cruise, man’s a consummate pro when it comes to acting; wouldn’t surprise me if he could act right through space sickness and make it look like he’s having a blast.
Jan 192022
NASA scientists estimate Tonga blast at 10 megatons
Impressive enough if you are close enough to suffer damage from it, but 10 megatons is frankly small taters in the world of volcanoes and asteroid impacts. Still… the before and after photos of the island show that it suffered just a little bit of a dent:
Jan 192022
Radian announces plans to build one of the holy grails of spaceflight
The “holy grail” in this case is an SSTO spaceplane. It is to *not* incorporate airbreathing or wacky unproven technologies; instead, it is to use fairly conventional liquid propellant rocket engines in the tail of a cranked-delta spaceplane. To lob it off the ground, it will use a powered sled for a horizontal runway launch.
Ehh.
Same basic concept as the Sanger Silverbird of 1944 vintage, or the Boeing “Windjammer” and RASV concepts from the 70’s. If they can get the mass ratio to work… sure, it’s possible. They’re claiming a 48-hour turnaround. Uh-huh. I’ll believe it when I see it. I wish them the best, but I’ve seen far too many such press releases since the 90’s to get all excited.
A few patent applications that might be of interest:
“Earth to Orbit Transportation System”
“Rocket propulsion systems and associated methods”
The not terribly enlightening website is here:
https://www.radianaerospace.com/
Curiously, one of the names attached to both patent applications that might be of interest to readers of this blog is Gary Hudson, of the Phoenix SSTO, Air Launch and Roton fame. But he doesn’t seem to be listed on the website.
Jan 192022
Democrats are claiming that Republicans want to restrict the right to vote because Republicans want voters to prove that they are who they claim to be by displaying a valid ID like a drivers license or other state-issued identification card. To rational, sane people, this doesn’t sound like such a chore. But there are those who expand the concept of “valid identification” rather further:
Arrest Warrants Count As ID For Illegal Migrants At Airport Security, TSA Says
Ummm…
4. If proper identification is not available, what documents are sufficient to allow a Non- US/Canadian citizen to clear TSA’s checkpoint before proceeding into the sterile area of an airport?
As mentioned, in coordination with its DHS counterparts, TSA established a process where it will accept certain DHS-issued forms for non-citizens and non-U.S. nationals who do not have otherwise acceptable forms of ID for presentation at its security checkpoints. In this instance, the TSA TDC will look at the DHS-issued document (for example, I-94, I-862) for an alien identification number (A-file) and validate the document either by the CBP One™ mobile application or by the TSA NTVC. For all travelers, if an individual does not have acceptable ID as listed on TSA’s acceptable forms of ID list, TSA will accept additional forms of ID that have the individual’s name, with preference given to Government-issued ID. One of the two forms must have the individual’s name and identifying information such as a photo, address, phone number, social security number or date of birth. For all travelers who lack acceptable ID, TSA uses the NTVC, which attempts to verify a traveler’s identity by using the individual’s information along with information from government and commercial databases. All such individuals receive additional screening procedures as described in the Checkpoint and Specialized Screening Standard Operating Procedure.
a. Please list each document.
DHS-issued forms that TSA may accept at the checkpoint include the following:
ICE Form I-200 – Warrant for Arrest of Alien
ICE Form I-205 – Warrant of Removal/Deportation
ICE Form I-220A – Order of Release on Recognizance
ICE Form I-220B – Order of Supervision
DHS Form I-862 – Notice to Appear
CBP Form I-94 – Arrival and Departure Form (including a print-out of an electronic record)
DHS Form I-385 – Alien Booking Record
…yay?
Now, if what’s *actually* going on is some devious scheme to convince illegal aliens to present their deportation orders at the airport, upon which the TSA calls the border patrol who snatch the illegals and divert them to a plane on a one-way flight to Tierra Del Fuego… I’d be *all* in favor of that. But somehow I suspect that’s not what actually going on; the TSA agents are doubtless as helpless to act against foreign invaders as a Walgreens employee in San Francisco is to act against a shoplifter.