Campaign 2020: Come out swinging

 art, awesomeness, Hmm..., news, politics, THIS is why Trump won, youtube  No Responses »
Jul 102020
 

A Trump ad. Regardless of whether or not Biden wants to defund the police, the fact is that his cohorts *do.* Ask his prospective VP nominees if *they* do, because if Biden wins in November, it’s not unreasonable to assume that the VP will actually take the reigns come January.

Below is an interesting interview with Biden that touches on judicial system reform, where he wants to take money from the police and give it to criminals in the form of Pell grants and every other conceivable bennie.

 

 Posted by at 8:31 pm

Selenomelanin

 Hmm..., news, science  No Responses »
Jul 092020
 

New biomaterial could shield against harmful radiation

Short form: a synthetic version of melanin – the pigment that darkens human skin – containing selenium has been found to protect organisms from dangerous levels of ionizing radiation (X-rays here). The researchers suggest that astronauts could apply it like sunscreen while in deep space.

OK… but… wouldn’t a sunscreen made of some simple paste mixed with selenium work just as well, rather than going the extra steps in cobbling together the specific melanin pigment? I suppose if astronauts could be modified somehow so that if they were fed a diet higher in selenium, or took selenium supplements, and the selenium bonded to the melanin in their skin, that might work, but that doesn’t seem to be what they’re working towards. Hell, couldn’t the selenium be formed into fabric and worn as clothes? I remain baffled about the mechanism by which a small amount of selenium bonded to a form of melanin protects the body from radiation. You’re madding perhaps grams-per-square-meter of selenium to your skin, where X-Ray technicians wear lead aprons that are thousands of times more massive to provide protection.

But, ok, sure. let’s go with it and assume that it works. One detail not in evidence is what does selenomelanin *look* like? I would assume that it doesn’t look like standard melanin. Rather than astronauts looking darker after getting their selenomelanin coatings or boosters… would they look gray? Green? Silver? Magnesium oxide white?

 Posted by at 9:32 pm

What hath Autotune wrought?

 art, awesomeness, Crazy, youtube  No Responses »
Jul 092020
 

Aaaannnnd here we are:

The comments at YouTube are spectacular. Many are worthy of stealing (after adjusting spelling and grammar).

“One day you’ll be before a god less merciful than the rest of us”

“It’s like a unicorn vomited up it’s intestines and they spelled out “Kill Yourself” in cursive.”

“When Funkytown is just the name of the BDSM dungeon”

“This has the same energy as someone whispering “moist” in you left ear.”

“CHAOTIC NEUTRAL: THE MUSICAL EXPERIENCE”

 

 Posted by at 6:44 pm

The Aerospace Projects Review Discord server

 aircraft, APR, blather, Book X, books, Hmm..., news, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Jul 092020
 

Several recommendations have come in over the years to set up an APR Discord server… which has now been done. I’m still in the process of configuring it and figuring it all out, but once it’s up and running it will serve as sort of a backup to the APR blog. It is something that seems to be available solely via invitation, so there will be some other little features it’ll have… such as, probably, even more restricted discussion forums specifically about Book 1 and Book 2 (“Book X” and “Book XX,” whatever) where I will describe them and post preview images such as representative diagrams, lists of vehicles to be illustrated, possibly early stabs at cover art, etc.

Subscribers to the APR Patreon and the Monthly Historical Documentation Program will all get invites when the time comes. I’m thinking of inviting the higher-level patrons/subscribers into the Book1 & 2 subforums. At the moment it’s pretty bare… there are channels for “Aircraft projects,” “spacecraft projects,” “aerospace news,” “aircraft – built” (as opposed to “projects), “general” (which is just for discussion of the APR Discord server itself) and “US Aerospace Projects,” which will go into further detail about the USxP issues I’ve released and plan to release.

If anyone has experience with such things, feel free to leave recommendations and suggestions in the comments.

 

 Posted by at 3:09 pm

Twin-Engined Tristar

 aircraft, art, history, projects  No Responses »
Jul 082020
 

It is common practice for an aerospace company to crank out many and sundry concepts for derivatives of the aircraft they produce (if they didn’t, Aerospace Projects Review never would’ve come to be). This is certainly true for jetliners. And of course, in many cases derivative are in fact produced… the DC-9, 707 and 737, for instance, saw many stretched, stretched further and stretched some more designs enter service, packing more passengers onto airframes that don’t cost much more to buy or operate.

One derivative that went no further than the concept stage was a 1970’s Lockheed idea for a twin-engine version of their three-engined L-1011. This would have been a *smaller* aircraft, but presumably cheaper, more economical to operate as an “airbus” on shorter routes. However, there were already a number of jetliners to fill that role, and with as expensive as the L-1011 turned out to be to maintain and keep flying, this idea basically never had a chance.

 Posted by at 7:42 pm

The “Interstellar” meme

 art, humor, science fiction, youtube  No Responses »
Jul 082020
 

Hey, look! No politics or news about how we’re now firmly embedded within the Crazy Years!

 

A few years ago people started adding bits of music from the movie “Interstellar” to videos of things rotating out of control. Sometimes the result was comedy gold.

And sometimes there was a convergence of memes…

 Posted by at 7:33 pm

*TRY* to make sense of this

 Crazy, Forward!, news, politics, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jul 072020
 

Statues and monuments that have stood for more than a century are being vandalized and destroyed from coast to coast, businesses burned and looted, cities destroyed… with the people doing the damage *not* being charged. But if you paint over a blatantly political message painted onto a street? Watch out!

California man, woman who vandalized Black Lives Matter street mural and dismissed racism face hate crime charges

Anderson and Nelson each face two vandalism charges and a charge of “violation of civil rights,” according to the district attorney’s office. The two face a year in county jail if convicted.

The frak. “Violation of civil rights????”

 Posted by at 8:39 pm

This looks like a *delight*

 Crazy, Forward!, I'm from the government, politics, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jul 072020
 

The June 29 meeting of the Manhattan Community Education Council District 2 meeting devolves into a straight-up struggle session, with a Mass Attack Of Karens. Fortunately, the target ain’t havin’ it.

Summary:

People have lost their damned minds. A few little people gained themselves a smidgen of power, and they promptly turn into hysterical tyrants. Fortunately, they’re caught on camera and the internet never forgets.

 

 Posted by at 11:49 am
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