The Bell 214ST (“Super Transport”) first flew in 1977. Derived from the Bell 214, itself derived from the UH-1 “Huey,” the 214ST was substantially bigger and more powerful than the original design. Bell had great hopes for the type, but in the end less than one hundred were produced. A not-inconsiderable part of the problem was that the 214ST was designed to be produced in Iran which, at the time, was an American ally; of course, Iran soon fall to forces of the Stupid Age, and that put an end to notions of Bell designs being manufactured in Iran. It was roughly similar to the Sikorsky UH-60 in size and performance. Bell continued to push for customers into the 1990’s (the art below was published in 1982), but production ended in 1992 without any big contracts.
The full rez scans have been uploaded to the 2022-11 APR Extras Dropbox folder for $4 and up Patrons/Subscribers.
Ukraine was given M101 towed 105 mm artillery pieces by Lithuania. The 105 mm hell is still a standard round used by NATO, so the ammo is new. The cannon are apparently still in good shape and work just fine. Like the M1911, the M101 is no longer top of the line… but it still works adequately well, and you’d be a fool to not be afraid of getting shot by one. While more modern artillery might shoot farther or more accurately or faster… if the Ukrainians coordinate their fire with live drone surveillance, those antique cannon are going to make a mess of whoever’s on the receiving end.
#Ukraine: The first footage of a 105mm M101 howitzer, supplied by 🇱🇹 Lithuania to Ukraine earlier this year, in action with the AFU. Although these are older designs, more artillery is always useful-which is why Soviet WW2-era 85mm D-44 guns still make appearances. pic.twitter.com/2tQvMQ5Lkd
I don’t smoke. I don’t vape. And if I did, I would not have inhaled anything made in China. That decision came about well before I saw the video below, which purports to show the method of testing of vape products in a Chinese vape factory.
Gee golly gosh, it sure is a mystery how some epidemics seem to spread so quickly…
Several news reports (example) have come out in the past few days saying that stockpiles of weapons such as anti-tank missiles, MANPADS, artillery shells, etc. are running low in NATO countries. We have apparently sent a *lot* to Ukraine, which has spent the last nine months using those weapons to grind down the Russian military. The result is that NATO may soon run out… meaning no more for Ukraine, and little enough left for us. This is, perhaps naturally, portrayed as a Bad Thing.
But, utilized correctly, it’s not. It is in fact a Good Thing. Why? Because the war in Ukraine is, comparatively, a small one. Compared to Russia invading NATO, or China invading Taiwan or Japan, this war is dinky. And if we’re running low on ammo now… that is one hell of a bright shiny message that we need to stock the frak up. Doing so will take time of course… and we’d better start that clock *now* rather than waiting for when the Big One actually comes. Some of these weapons will take two or more years just to ramp up production… often, the last time these weapons were made was before the soldiers likely to use them were even born.
This will of course cost a lot. But the war in Ukraine has shown that western weapons are pretty damn effective, certainly compared to the Russian systems; it’s not just NATO and Ukraine that will want them, but *everybody.* It’s conceivable that the costs involved in restarting production could be paid for by export sales. Hell, just avoiding the insane student loan forgiveness idea would save the funds needed; perhaps those student loans could be paid off by said students working in the arms factories. Put those gender studies degrees to good use running lathes.
The state of Minnesota has charged the Department of Energy’s recently-hired head of spent nuclear fuel management with felony theft, court documents show.
According to a criminal complaint filed Oct. 27 in Minnesota’s 4th Judicial District Court, Sam Brinton, who began working in June as DOE’s deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition, is accused of stealing a bag from the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport’s baggage claim area in September.
Under Minnesota law, the crime with which Brinton was charged carries a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison, a $10,000 fine or both.
I wonder how J Edgar’s FBI would have handled this situation.
I’m not the biggest fan of dress codes, but there’s something to be said for having some friggen’ *dignity.* This is the look of the men who got us to the moon:
On the other hand, there may be some small benefit here. “Looks crazy” stands a chance of mapping fairly linearly to “is crazy.”
A day or two back I posted about “Established Titles.” In short… nah. I had wondered if the recent surge in interest in ET being less than entirely above-board might have some effect on any of the YouTubers who have been raking in sponsorship money from them… and lo and behold, one of the more entertaining YouTubers, “Casual Geographic,” posted this:
So as many of you have made me aware, a brand I’ve promoted twice has been exposed for pretty much being a scam (or at the very least, incredibly misleading). That’s obviously a massive failing on my part and on me and me alone. I can see now how the brand was meant to be intentionally misleading. For example, their website claims it’s a “fun, novelty product” but explicitly had us say things like “the first x people will receive a plot right next to mine” (which ,not gonna lie, should have been a red flag). Clearly implying that you’d be purchasing a physical plot of land, which clearly is not the case. So the two videos where I promoted them have been archived and I’m in the process of returning the money received from the partnership as well as cutting ties contractually. As soon as I can be sure I’m not in a position for the brand to come after me legally, I’ll repost them with the sponsored segments removed. I’m sorry for promoting what is essentially a grift and apologize to anyone that gave this brand money because they trusted me. Obviously it doesn’t really matter what my intentions were because either way I promoted it but I hope you all understand that I’d never willingly push a dishonest product and am genuinely sorry that I did.
Well done.
I don’t have much animosity towards those who were paid to promote this; the YouTube business model, much like the pre-Musk Twitter model, is seriously broken. Videos that could and should earn the makers *substantial* sums could and often did get demonitized on a whim, sometimes regularly; YouTubers who should make a good living by being entertaining and informative could find their incomes slashed due to false flagging and simple incompetence, with a heavy dose of shady politics. Thus it’s not unreasonable that they’d jump at the opportunity to sign on lucrative sponsorships, and the “buy a plot of land and be called a Lord” thing is sufficiently both weird and mundane that on first glance it probably seems fun and harmless.
If you’ve bought into Established Titles, or you “bought and named a star,” don’t feel bad. If you did so for the entertainment value, for the conversation value… then it’s worth what you feel it’s worth. If you bought in as an investment… well, that’s kinda dumb. Your financial planning is bad and you should feel bad. But speaking as a guy with a surprising number of toy spaceships and a vast number of model kits that will certainly never be finished, I’m not gonna knock someone for buying objectively useless stuff just because you want to. Where I get twitchy is when they sell it to you dishonestly.
Anyway good on Casual Geographics. I heartily recommend this feller. He talks about critters in a way that’s both informative *and* incredibly entertaining. A fair amount of nature red in tooth and claw, so be advised.
There is a video at THIS LINK that shows the aftermath of a number of thieves trying to break into a guys property (home? car?). The thieves are uninjured… but they are seriously *cowed* by the cameraman, the owner of the property in question. He’s able to wander around and berate the thieves one by one… and not only do they not run off, they follow his orders which include stripping buck nekkid. It’s amusing to be sure. But there are some plot holes:
1) How does he command their obedience? Some possibilities:
1A) He’s well armed
1B) He has off-camera backup that is well armed
1C) The thieves didn’t know who they were robbing, and now know that he is, perhaps, some locally respected criminal leader. Gang activity is not to be discounted.
2) What happened next? Beyond the NSFW options, were the cops called? Did the interactions end with a series of gunshots? Were the thieves sent on their way sans wallets, phones, clothes, shoes? They seem to have been in possession of one of more cars. Presumably not after this encounter, though it’s reasonable to assume they stole those cars in the first place.
Note that one of the thieves was found to have an ankle monitor. This means that not only has he committed crimes before, he’d been arrested, tried, convicted and punished by the legal system… and wasn’t dissuaded from continuing criminality. One wonders if getting caught and humiliated by one of his intended victims might have a more salubrious effect on his future plans than getting arrested would. Given the propensity of so many local legal systems to simply decriminalize crime these days, having non-official responses to criminals might not be a bad thing.
As to the ankle monitor: cutting it off might have some captivating results for the guy who’s supposed to be wearing it.
Early in the LHX program (gave birth to the late lamented RAH-66 Comanche) the Army’s requirements were sufficiently aggressive and vague that Bell Aerospace held out hope that a tiltrotor might be chosen. So Bell designed a few single-seat “scout” tiltrotors under the BAT (Bell Advanced Tiltrotor) moniker. Most were more or less similar in configuration to the Bell XV-15, but one design – which I know solely from this one piece of art, published in 1983 – went a little further. The fuselage and tail surfaces were shaped to reduce the radar cross section, making the vehicle hopefully somewhat stealthier. Sadly, no diagrams or technical information for this configuration. If someone knows more, or has a better version of this artwork, by all mean let me know.
Oddly, the PBS special “In The Event of Catastrophe” from 1978 is age restricted. Click on it, it’ll take you to YouTube directly. Shrug.
“First Strike” from the RAND Corporation. A docu-drama depicting a Soviet first strike that effectively wipes out America’s nuclear retaliatory capability and leads to the capitulation of the USA. Bits of this were used in “The Day After” a few years later.
This one from the National Film Board of Canada runs kinda light on pointing out that the Commies are setting off the nukes. Instead, the nuclear explosions just sorta happen, some vague result of American actions.
And just for fun, here’s a German 1998 alternate history show (“Der Dritte Weltkrieg”) where 1990 goes a little differently:
