Nov 112015
 

He spent last night under a bed, but he’s been out and about today. Last night his chin was pretty badly swollen, but it has come down substantially today. His pain pill was ground up and added to his soft food; apparently it wasn’t nasty tasting, because he ate it down without complaint. On the whole he seems to be healing.

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 Posted by at 1:48 pm
Nov 112015
 

I released a two-part tale in the Pax Orionis series back in September, but nothing since. Partially due to travel, partially due to stress not being terribly conducive to creative writing. nevertheless, I’ve been writing, and am within spitting distance of finishing the next yarn, “The Blast from Jackass Flats.” The earlier two-parter told of an incident during the Great War of 1984 from the viewpoint of civilians on the surface, with Orion spacecraft way off in the distance; this next story deals explicitly with an important incident in the history of the Orion program. It will almost certainly be a one-parter rather than two.

Most of the Pax Orionis stories will be in different styles. This one is in the style of an author trying to tell the story from some time later. The author is perhaps overly interested in technical details…

If interested, please take a look at and consider signing on to the Pax Orionis Patreon. Only a buck!

 Posted by at 1:35 pm
Nov 112015
 

Here’s a process I was previously unaware of… the use of easily available hydrogen peroxide-based consumer products and ultraviolet light (or just sunlight) to restore the original bright white color of old plastic. While the guy doing the video focuses on old computer equipment, this process might be of particular interest for old unpainted display models and the like that have turned yellow or brown due to UV exposure over the years or decades.

Something I don’t know: does this process restore the structural properties of the old plastic? With years of UV damage, not only does white plastic turn yellow, it also becomes brittle. While I really rather doubt it, I suppose it might be just barely possible that this process will reverse that embrittlement.  And if it works on plastic, what else might it de-yellow? Paint? Paper? Hmmm…

 Posted by at 11:18 am
Nov 112015
 

The JetPack Aviation JB-9 jetpack uses actual turbojets for lift, rather than the horribly propellant-hungry hydrogen peroxide monoprop Bell rocket pack we’re more generally familiar with. This flight was about five minutes. Still pretty sad compared to the dream, where you strap on a jetpack and go fly to work, but still way better than the thirty seconds available with the rocket pack.

Would have been better if the drone had actually followed the jetpack  through its paces, but oh well.

Here’s some PR footage of the jetpack as it was flown near the Statue of Liberty:

 Posted by at 1:57 am
Nov 112015
 

A recent online discussion on a wholly different subject went kinda sideways and ended up in the topic area of “should we threaten to nuke the ‘holy city’ of Such-and-Such world religion because a whole lot of the adherents of said religion are backwards murderous psychopaths driven to that by their crappy Surt-worshipping death cult of a religion.”

One side of the argument holds that threatening to nuke that city would be not only evil but counter-productive. We’d cheese off the rest of the Surt worshippers, the ones who today are merely “moderate” in their religious beliefs. There is validity in this point of view.

But on the other hand… there was this example from the mid 1980’s. Any Americans my age and older will no doubt remember the national shame of fellow Americans kidnapped by backwards savages in Lebanon and held for a *really* long time. What is less well remembered is that the Soviets *also* had some of their people kidnapped in the region. But unlike the Americans, the Soviet kidnappings were few and brief. And it wasn’t because the Soviets were nice to the kidnappers:

Hostages? No Problem Soviets Offer ‘How-to’ Lesson In Kidnapping

This piece, originally published in the January 15, 1986, issue of the Philadelphia Inquirer, tells of four Soviet embassy staffers in Beirut who were kidnapped in September, 1985. Demands were made that the Soviets pressure pro-Syrian forces to stop shelling pro-Iranian forces in northern Lebanon. When there was no forward progress on that, two days after the kidnapping one of the Soviet staffers was shot in the head and left in a trash dump.

Within a month, the other three kidnapped staffers were released unharmed, and no further Soviets were kidnapped. So what did the Soviets do different from the Americans?

Well, first off the KGB was unleashed. As goes the story, the KGB promptly determined that Hezbollah was responsible and located a nearby leader of that fun organization. And then located a close relative of the Hezbollah leader. And then the KGB kidnapped the relative. And castrated him, sending the severed junk to the Hezbollah leader, followed by shooting the relative through the noggin and sending the body along with the message that the KGB knew where more relatives were to be found.

Now, this sort of action is *massively* illegal. But the point is, it apparently worked.

There may be a lesson there.

 Posted by at 1:26 am
Nov 102015
 

I brought Raedthinn home from the vet four hours ago, settled him in an promptly attempted a half-hour catnap that lasted more like three. So, huzzah.

Anyway, Raedthinns second round of work resulted in some changes. Instead of trying to lash the loose incisors and the bone sliver back to the jaw, the vet simply removed them and closed him back up. So he’s short quite a number of teeth. Shouldn’t affect him much in the future when it comes to eating cat food, but for now he’s restricted to wet food.

He has suffered repeated trauma to his mouth… the initial injury, two separate operations. This no doubt hurts, even though he’s been medicated. Since the return home he has camped out under a bed.

Attempts at photography have not been terribly successful. This is about the best photo so far. I doubt that this new look is permanent… but man does he look unhappy.

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 Posted by at 7:37 pm
Nov 102015
 

Raedthinn is back at the vet. His incisors are sorts floating freely, rather than being locked back in place. So for the third time in three days, he’s going under, this time to get his teeth, and the chunk of bone they’re attached to, sewn or wired back into place.

Sigh…

 Posted by at 11:15 am
Nov 092015
 

He has returned home. The damages: he is short one fang and the bone immediately in front of it. The incisors in front between the two fangs were also yanked forward, separating a “sheet” of bone from the jaw. The vet basically just jammed them back into place and is confident that’ll heal up. So Raedthinn is on soft food for a couple weeks. The jaw isn’t as broken as the initial xrays suggested to the first vet, though apparently there might be a fracture right down the middle. It didn’t need to be wired together.

He needs to be on pain meds for several days. Shocking, I know.

Thanks to all who helped out. Costs were substantially less than expected due to the lack of wiring. Costs were less than donations. While I’d love to use the excess funds to go to Vegas or some such, I suppose the right thing to do would be to offer refunds to anyone who contributed. So, if you donated to the Tip Jar and would like a refund, partial or full, just send an email.

——

Since I brought him home I’ve been trying to get a photo that shows his new situation, but without holding him down and forcing his mouth open – which I’m not going to do – it seems to be an impossible task.

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WP_20151109_035“No photos!”

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 Posted by at 6:08 pm
Nov 092015
 

I gave the vet clinic about five seconds to get up and running this morning and then called in to check on how Raedthinn is doing. I’ve been freaking out since I left him there yesterday because the last I saw of him, he was sedated really heavily to take X-rays… and at the time he looked very, very dead (look close and you could *just* make out breathing). So that was my last image of him. Anyway, the receptionist went back and took a look at him… he’s “bright eyed and bushy tailed.” So, huzzah. At some point later in the day he will see the surgeon, but at least he got over that first hump, getting over sedation. Cats and chemicals… not a good combination.

Many thanks to all those who have contributed. I’ll leave the “Raedthinn Restoration Sale” up and running for a while more.

UPDATE, 5 hours later: I spoke briefly with a receptionist at the clinic. Raedthinn is out of surgery, came through it well. Apparently the damage wasn’t as bad as the vet yesterday suggested; the jaw as a whole apparently wasn’t broken and didn’t need wiring together, but a piece of the jaw broke off with the one wonky fang, and that chunk, and the fang, have been removed. I’m hoping to speak to the surgeon later today when I pick up Raedthinn and get more definition on just what all happened.

Since the damage wasn’t as bad as expected, I’m hoping that the bill won’t be as bad as expected. So… I’ll leave the “sale” up for a little longer, but I’ll hazard a guess and say that donations are probably no longer needed. Of course, if you really *want* to, say, to say “thanks for all the cat photos, aerospace pictures and glitteringly brilliant political analyses…”

Today, Buttons and Speedbump have been their usual selves. But Fingers has been in hiding… she knows Raedthinn’s not here, and seems to be quite disturbed by that.

 

 Posted by at 8:17 am