Yet more.
Nov 202018
Nov 192018
Note: I’ve been a bit dubious about this one. While I’m all in favor of as many Western billionaires as possible spending their money on launch systems, spacecraft and space propulsion systems (and even more in favor of some such billionaire paying *me* to study such things… anyone? Anyone?), the LauncherOne seems like kind of a “meh” approach. Simply a modernized Pegasus in many ways… and Pegasus was by nobody’s definition an innovatively inexpensive way to send a whole lot of stuff into space. Still… the more the merrier I suppose.
Nov 192018
Jewish man said accidentally attacked by left-wing protesters in Philadelphia
The Proud Boys seem to have held a “troll” protest, with one of the Antifa counter-protestors complaining that the Proud Boys were just wasting their time. Someone who was apparently involved with neither side walked across the vicinity, and the leftists decided to assault him, calling him a Nazi and all the usual rubbish. That innocent person was a Jewish fella. So… Antifa not only called a jew a Nazi and attacked him, they attacked a guy who was doing nothing to them, displaying no signs, chanting nothing, not even wearing a MAGA hat. Someone just got it into their tiny little pea brain that “hurr durr, that guy’s a Nazi, let’s beat him up.”
Summary: Proud Boys, with minimal effort or provocation, got their Antifa opponents to demonstrate their true selves.
Nov 192018
Nov 172018
Here’s some more “Humans R Teh Dum” for ya…
When Space Science Becomes a Political Liability
Basically, it is easy to play off the “don’t spend money in space when there are still problems on Earth” trope, as exemplified by this attack ad:
Fletcher, the candidate who campaigned against an opponent based on his support of space science, won. Her district? Houston, Texas. Gee, I wonder if there might be any of that nasty space-spending going on in Houston?
It boggles my tiny little mind that anti-space worked so well in a town with a major NASA center. This does not bode well for the future. However… done right this *could* be used to argue that as NASA winds down in relevancy, with space exploration becoming the province of private enterprise, perhaps the space centers of the future could be located elsewhere. While it is down to physics that launch centers should be as far south as practical, that’s not even remotely true for *other* centers. Manufacturing, testing, laboratories, planning, admin, mission control… these could be *anywhere.* Like a dream I had a while back, manufacturing of the spacecraft and launch systems of the future could be done *anywhere.* With boosters and spacecraft like the BFR, they could be built one place far from the launch site… and could self-transport themselves from the manufacturing facility near, say, Bozeman Montana to the launch facilities in Florida. This ability would allow for the location of major space centers in places that are not only substantially less Hell-like than Houston with it’s insane heat and humidity, but also where the citizenry actually appreciates them.
Nov 172018
The local news (well, the Salt Lake city news, anyway) tends to lead with crime news. We’re getting closer to the Christmas Commercial Spending Holiday (TM) Member FDIC, so “porch pirates” are soon to be the big story almost every night. But last nights news featured this mind-boggling story of theft:
Disabled teen hoping for return of custom wheelchair after it was stolen in SLC
The teen in question suffers from a rather awful genetic disorder that caused his rib cage to stop growing when he was a child, compressing his innards an leaving him with a grand total of 11% lung function. He cannot travel without oxygen tanks, which his electric wheelchair was modified for…and some jackholes decided to steal it from the family SUV.
Theft is, of course, always bad. But it can *usually* be understood: someone wants that item, or wants the money that they can exchange that item for. People steal packages from porches without knowing what’s in them, presumably hoping that they contain valuable items that they can pawn. People steal cars because they need a ride or because they think they can resell it or part it out. But a wheelchair? What the frak can you do with a wheelchair? Is there really that much of an underground black market for modified electric wheelchairs? Are there really that many criminals or family members of criminals who desire electric wheelchairs?
Some people just need a whoopin’. Stealing meds and wheelchairs from kids? Yeah… that gets you moved up to the head of the whoopin’ line.
Nov 172018
This looks like an interesting piece:
An all-metal (steel and cast aluminum) California Arms Co. “Defiance” 20 gauge side-by-side shotgun pistol from the 1920’s. Only 300 or so were made, and of course the NFA put an end to low cost short barreled shotguns in the 1930’s. But the design looks not only practical but simple, the sort of thing that could probably be readily modeled in CAD for either 3D metal printing or (more reasonably) CNC milling. Seems like the sort of thing that could have a set of easily swappable barrels of different length, down to just a few inches.
Nov 172018
The 1969 movie “Marooned” featured an Apollo crew stranded in orbit and eventually rescued by a lifting body spacecraft,the fictional “XRV.” It has been noted that the vehicle and the basic setup look a *lot* like an illustration from a 1965 issue of Aviation Week depicting a Martin Co. lifting body rescuing the crew of an Apollo spacecraft:
There is clearly something a little strange going on in this artwork: what may seem like an adapter section or a propulsion module behind the lifting body is actually a docked Gemini spacecraft. There is no explanation for this, but I can speculate. The lifting body is meant to serve as a rescue craft, so it would need to have as much internal space as possible. Not just for three rescued Apollo astronauts, but three astronauts potentially in medical distress. So they might need to be laid out on stretchers, not just sitting in seats. Consequently, while they would need a pilot to get them home and “ambulance staff” to get them squared away, there might not be enough room for everyone. So *perhaps* what’s going on here is that the spaceplane is launched empty or with just a pilot, and the Gemini/Adapter has two EMTs in it. They get the rescuees dealt with and sent home, and they come home in the Gemini. This way, three rescuers go up, but only one comes down taking up space in the lifting body. This is non-optimal, of course; better would be to bring everyone home in one large vehicle. But perhaps this was the best that could be done with the intended launch system, presumably a Titan IIIc.
The lifting body is clearly related to the X-23/X-24 geometry that Martin was beginning to study at the time. A mockup that is very similar, though with the central vertical stabilizer that eventually appeared on the X-24, is shown HERE and HERE.
Nov 162018
When I lost Raedthinn, I publicly proclaimed “no more cats,” knowing as I said it that that was a lie. The lie has now been established as such due to the recent introduction of “Banshee.”
Over the summer this cat started appearing at my front and back doors, during both day and night. Sometimes when I’d step outside she would announce her presence by loudly meowing in the distance, followed by charging up to me and behaving with human-friendliness rivaled only by Buttons. I inquired with neighbors; they did not know her. And so when it started dropping down into the teens at night, I broke my “no more cats” vow.
She has been given the all-clear by the vets, along with her shots. And she has been introduced to the other cats… and that is what earned her her name. She, it could be argued, *loves* me. But by the same anthropomorphizing metric, she FREAKIN’ HATES the other cats. She makes noises you don’t often hear outside of horror movies, at volumes rare outside of IMAX theaters. She’s been in for a bit over a week now, and has been generally separated from the others. They are all being gradually introduced and Banshee is *slowly* warming up to them… so long as they stay the hell away from her. From the other cats point of view Banshee is clearly insane and few things are more intrinsically interesting than crazy people so she’s fun for them to gather around and watch. And having an audience surrounding her ticks her off. So far there have been no actual fights, and as angry as she gets around the others she has yet to even *try* to bite me when I scoop her up. So I fully expect that she will sooner or later more or less fit in.
The vet suggests that she’s 3 to 6 years old. I suggest that she will become Jabba the Cat. Rare have I seen such a voluminous appetite.
Sigh.
Damnit.
Nov 162018
A common refrain from gun grabbers is that they *aren’t* gun grabbers, and that anyone who suggests that they are is a paranoid nut. But every now and then they come right out and tell you what they *really* want:
Ban assault weapons, buy them back, go after resisters: Ex-prosecutor in Congress
This op-ed was written by Eric Swalwell, a Democrat Representative from San Francisco. His suggestion is to buy all “assault weapons” for $1000 and then kill anyone who resists. Think that’s an exaggeration? Behold:
Wow! still can’t believe a member of our government said he’d nuke US civilians refusing to hand over guns. pic.twitter.com/Thks3q48jt
— Joe Biggs (@Rambobiggs) November 16, 2018
One might be tempted to think it is a bit extraordinary that a member of the US federal Government publicly suggested democide as a way to enforce his policies.