Do you want to see what happens when an angled slab of metal hits a nuclear weapon at Ludicrous Speed? Of course you do.
Feb 122020
Feb 102020
House Bill 753
AN ACT TO AUTHORIZE THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI TO ENTER INTO AN INTERSTATE COMPACT WITH SOUTHERN STATES FOR THE PURPOSE OF OPERATING AS SECOND AMENDMENT SANCTUARY STATES; TO ESTABLISH THE INTERSTATE COMMISSION ON SECOND AMENDMENT SANCTUARY AND PRESCRIBE ITS POWERS AND DUTIES; TO EXEMPT CERTAIN FIREARMS, FIREARM ACCESSORIES AND AMMUNITION IN THIS STATE FROM FEDERAL REGULATION; TO DECLARE CERTAIN FEDERAL STATUTES, REGULATIONS, RULES, AND ORDERS UNCONSTITUTIONAL UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES AND UNENFORCEABLE IN THIS COMPACT REGION; TO REQUIRE THE ATTORNEYS GENERAL OF COMPACT STATES TO FILE ANY LEGAL ACTION TO PREVENT IMPLEMENTATION OF A FEDERAL STATUTE, REGULATION, RULE OR ORDER THAT VIOLATES THE RIGHTS OF A RESIDENT OF A COMPACT STATE; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
Huh.
I would have preferred it had they actually spelled “Sanctuary” correctly in the title…
Other than that, it seems like a good enough bill. Well, that and the specifically setting out “Southern states” and seemingly limiting the Compact from future growth. It would be best if *any* state could sign on.
Feb 102020
In 1985, Rockwell International considered the business case of an advanced single stage to orbit vehicle. The design illustrated was a manned, winged horizontal launched, horizontal landing design with, oddly, air inlets on the upper surface. Unlike the “Orient Express” or NASP designs of the time, this design was not meant to lift off and accelerate to Ludicrous Speed using scramjets, but was to lift off and rather sedately rendezvous with a tanker aircraft. This… is a bit familiar.
In the late 1990’s I worked for Pioneer Rocketplane. Our plan was to design and build a spaceplane that would lift off from a runway under turbojet power, with fuel tanks full of RP-1 and oxidizer tanks full of very little. The vehicle would rendezvous with a tanker aircraft which would transfer not jet fuel, but liquid oxygen. This is because for best performance an RP-1/LOX rocket system needs a far greater mass of LOX than RP-1. So leaving the LOX tank basically empty (a small amount was carried to keep the tank pressurized and chilled) would allow the vehicle to lift off at lowest practical mass. This lowered the mass needed for the landing gear, and lowered the surface area needed for the wings, which of course lowered the mass of the wings. The rocketplane would tank up, separate from the tanker and fire its rocket engine. In the case of the Pioneer Rocketplane “Pathfinder,” the spaceplane would reach orbital altitude, but not orbital velocity. An upper stage would boot the payload into orbit; the spaceplane would return home, either gliding or under jet power. The Rockwell design illustrated below *seems* to have been meant to operate in a similar fashion, but with the spaceplane intended to put itself directly into orbit. Most likely it would have been LH2/LOX powered, probably with SSME derivative engines.
The description in the text, though, describes very different vehicles, using propulsion system best described as highly steeped in the hypothetical. Atomic hydrogen and metastable helium are great stuff if you can get them… and, basically, you can’t. Not with 1980’s tech, not with 2020 tech. Someday, maybe.
Feb 102020
Democrat Bre Kidman is running for US Senate in Maine. Her chosen symbol makes her desire for murder of the opposition obvious:
I was gonna wait until tomorrow to show off these beauties, but Trump got acquitted and I feel like folks could use something to look forward to. So.
Get ready for Merch-You-Can’t-Buy! You shouldn’t buy elections, so you can’t buy our locally silk screened, upcycled merch. pic.twitter.com/B0A4HSvDIw
— bre🏳️🌈kidman🇺🇸for🦞Maine🌹(D) (@BeeKay4ME) February 5, 2020
Remember when her side got all snippy when Sarah Palin’s people showed a map that had little cross-hairs on it showing “targeted” districts. Now they’re showing tools of revolution, mass murder and terror.
Feb 102020
Buh?
Joe Biden Just Called a Woman at One of His Events a “Lying, Dog-Faced Pony Soldier.” What?
This was apparently a bit of light-hearted humor on Bidens part. but let’s face it… light-hearted humor died years ago. We’re not in the era of perpetual outrage, in no small part to Biden and his ilk. So… Biden called a young woman a liar with the face of a dog, which is clearly him calling her ugly. Is it not time to sic the feminists upon him?
Feb 092020
Here is a home made pump action five-shot revolver shotgun, made from 3D printed parts and bits from Home Depot. Does it look cool? Certainly. Does it work? Is it reliable? Is it safe? Ummm… dunno. One certainly hopes so. Truly functional and practical firearms that can be made with consumer-grade printers and easily modified hardware store parts, as opposed to guns requiring a decent shop and a lot of skill and knowledge, would be a great benefit. But tacticool 3d printed guns that blow up in your face? Ah, no. Not a good idea.
So, bring on the ten-thousand-shot testing videos.
Feb 092020
Not sure about the propriety of posting a cartoon that demands licensing, so I’ll just post the link. It’s topical, funny and accurate.
Huh.
Feb 072020
A few things of interest:
Something in Deep Space Is Sending Signals to Earth in Steady 16-Day Cycles
“Deep space” as in 500 million light years away. “Signals” as in a cyclic fast radio burst, the first of its kind spotted. The source of the signal and the cause of its periodicity remain unclear.
Starliner faced “catastrophic” failure before software bug found
Back in December, the Boeing Starliner capsule that failed to meet up with the ISS had bigger issues than previously disclosed. Had the issue not been detected and corrected, upon separation from the service module there may have been thruster firings that could have led to loss of the capsule. Whoopsie.
Trump’s next budget could give NASA a huge funding windfall
$25 billion next year compared to $22 billion this year. This is to support a return to the moon by 2024. Whether Congress will support that after about half of ’em just tried to overturn the last election is anyone’s guess.
Feb 072020
The quickest way for a white person to commit career suicide is to be accused of being a racist. But it seems the quickest way to career success for *other* people is to publicly and proudly declare racism. Go figure. As an example, behold:
10 Reasons Why Inviting White People to the Mythical ‘Cookout’ Is Stupid and Silly and Needs to Stop Forever
Some examples:
3. Because cookout meat is precious and sacred and not meant to be shared with interlopers, gentrifiers, and Travis ᚠᚢᚲᚲᛜ Kelce.
7. BECAUSE INVITING WHITE PEOPLE TO THE COOKOUT NEGATES ONE OF THE PRIME REASONS FOR HAVING ALL-BLACK GATHERINGS AND THAT’S TO BE IN A SAFE AND UNDERSTANDING SPACE TO DISCUSS, DEBATE, DECONSTRUCT, AND TALK ᛋᚺᛁᛏ ABOUT THE ECOSYSTEM OF PECULIAR BEHAVIORS KNOWN AS “THAT’S SOME WHITE PEOPLE ᛋᚺᛁᛏ.”
Feel free to imagine the response of someone getting paid to write a color-reversed version of this article, declaring why it’s important for white people to keep their own spaces and to stop socializing with “others.”
Feb 072020
The Critical Drinker presents his top five cinematic “last stands.” Last stands in both history and fiction can be damned inspiring, the sort of thing that every man worth his salt hopes to aspire to. As the man wrote: “To every man upon this earth, death cometh soon or late, And how can man die better, Than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his fathers, And the temples of his gods.”
His top five are pretty good, but I’d actually put one of his “honorable mentions,” the last stand of Leonidas in “300” very, very close to the top. But very likely my number one would be that of Jack in “Oblivion,” who, while facing down (and telling a truncated version of Horatius at the bridge to) a Lovecraftian cosmic horror, says something that I wish was more commonly accepted: “Everyone dies. The thing is to die well.” He then goes out like a boss with a fantastic last line, God his own self smiling next to him.
Leave a comment on your favorite last stands. They need not be the actual *last* stand of a character; sometimes they manage to pull through. But a defining feature is that the character – fictional or historic – goes into it accepting that it is, indeed, the Last.
