Foamy says what needs sayin’.
Apr 182020
Apr 182020
Sold on ebay a while back, a piece of NASA color art depicting a Shuttle orbiter dropping off a satellite (more likely a deep-space probe given the bizarrely-located RTGs). The orbiter, however, does not seem to be closely based on an actual design. It has some similarity to a North American Rockwell concept, but I’d wager that it’s mostly artistic license.
Apr 162020
The Saturn V burned through propellant *fast.* How fast? Well, visualize it in terms of elephants…
Apr 162020
I think they might well be *trying* to start a war.
U.S. says China may have conducted low-level nuclear test blasts
Actual evidence of such tests seems lean, at least as reported in the Reuters article. But if they *are* popping off nukes, it is a pretty substantial provocation, especially after their recent bad behavior.
Apr 162020
Every few years people rediscover the Zeppelin and decide that it’s the future of aviation. And then… not much happens. Shown below is a mid-1970’s piece of NASA artwork depicting a heavy lift cargo dirigible that uses four CH-54 Skycranes for added lift and control. It’s shown here transporting an M-60 main battle tank to or from a cargo ship. Such an arrangement *could* work and has been tried, though it was hardly an unqualified success.
The full-rez scan of this cutaway has been made available to all $4 and up APR Patreons and Monthly Historical Document Program subscribers. It was uploaded to the 2019-12 APR Extras folder on Dropbox for Patreons and subscribers. If interested in this piece or if you are interested in helping to fund the preservation of this sort of thing, please consider becoming a patron, either through the APR Patreon or the Monthly Historical Document Program.
Apr 162020
… you’re going to shell out even more to fund your own invasion:
California’s Newsom announces $125M fund to give coronavirus stimulus checks to immigrants in state illegally
At a time when there is building chaos, when food might start to become scarce, when unemployment is skyrocketing, the California government wants to take taxpayer money to incentivize even more illegal aliens to come in and fill out the food banks, the jails, the hospitals, the low-end jobs. Here’s a better idea: use that $125 million to fund a program to help rid your state of illegal aliens. Sure, deportation is a job for the Feds. But a $125 million program to fund a reward system, where Californians can call to turn in employers who knowingly hire illegals? Heck, how big of a Trebuchet could California build for even $1.25 million, right along the border?
$125 million would fund a pretty substantial program to use drones to drop multi-lingual flyers warning illegals to head south.
Apr 162020
As of today… 150 diagrams completed for the book. Woo.
Oddly, and rather perversely, productivity while I’ve been stuck at home due to Winnie the Flu has actually decreased slightly. Some of this, though, is due to a lot of the earlier diagrams being of the “low hanging fruit” variety, while a good number of the diagrams as yet incomplete are of the much more intricate and complex variety.
Apr 162020
Apr 162020
Apr 152020
Bill Maher on the Chinese Wuhan Kung Flu, and what to call it: