Jul 312014
Jul 312014
First up: a retired A-10 Warthog is being refitted to serve as a tornado chaser:
Second: flooding in Russia takes down a static display Su-15 interceptor:
The Flood Washes Planes Away in Magadan
D’oh.
Jul 312014
Heh.
[youtube Vwn_UfG2spc]
Jul 302014
Two passes – Public and Press – for parking to witness the landing of the first Space Shuttle orbital flight, STS-1. The government threat/verbiage on the back is a little creepifyin’ but I’m pretty sure it’s expired by now (probably expired the moment it landed). These passes were scanned at 300 DPI and are presented at Blog-Rez. Higher rez versions are available at the APR blog, and full rez at my Patreon.
These passes were obtained via an eBay purchase, and were “extras” to the items I was actually after (detailed large format diagrams of the Shuttle flight instrumentation). This purchase was made possible by my Patreon contributors. So if you like this sort of thing, please consider contributing to my Patreon campaign. Every little bit helps! The full-rez scans are available to all Patreon contributors.
Jul 302014
Where David Duchovny (an American of Ukrainian, Polish and Scottish extraction) fantasizes about how things might’ve been different if he was Russian. Well, things keep going the way they are, the Ukrainian and Polish parts of his ancestry just might wind up being Russian…
[youtube _6XI8i_69xA]
Jul 302014
[youtube 4E7xHCy1A3g]
Seems relevant:
Jul 302014
So we’ve seen Vlad Putin doing his best to emulate a certain charismatic community organizer from the 1930’s: by using nonsensical appeals to nationalist-ethnic identity, he has tried to snap up chunks of surrounding nations, with some success.
But now it looks like much of the rest of Europe wants to relive parts of the 1930’s:
Exodus: Why Europe’s Jews Are Fleeing Once Again
Now, here the issue of Europe’s growing anti-semitism is disconnected from Putin’s actions. But a large proportion of the anti-semitism in Europe has arisen from a dumbth-filled growing ideology, a combination religion and political-domination movement. This time, many of the Jews who are packing up and leaving Europe are heading to Israel, which option they mostly didn’t have 80 years ago, rather than coming to the US. But as they leave Europe and take their skills and talents with them Europe will suffer and Israel will benefit as the US did last time. The last time Europe’s driving-out of the Jews led in no small part to the US getting The Bomb. One wonders what Israel might end up with. With luck, it’ll be something that will allow Europe to accomplish with its current crop of anti-semites what the post-war de-nazification programs accomplished. It will be interesting if, in a decade or so, a certain religion and its symbols are as legal in Europe as Nazism and swastikas are today in Germany…
Jul 302014
Found on the back of a 1963 issue of “Space World” magazine was this piece of artwork depicting an unusual – and perhaps fanciful – spacecraft. The same artwork had appeared earlier – at least as far back as 1961 – in a magazine ad for the Garrett AiResearch corporation. The artwork was thus *probably* created in-house at Garrett. Since Garrett was a manufacturer of turboprop engines and electronics, not an aircraft or spacecraft design firm, this is unlikely to have been a serious engineering effort. Still, it’s interesting to see what level of *apparent* effort the PR divisions of numerous companies went to back in the glory days of the Space Age.
Jul 302014
Study Finds That Men Like Nice Women, But Not the Other Way Around
In the war between the Nice Guys and the Bad Boys, the Nice Guys will lose badly on the Attract The Women front. And the Nice Guys will be perpetually stunned by that. But this has been the way of things since we were just jumped-up grassland apes. The ability – and willingness – to swing a club and bring down lunch is simply ingrained into DNA as an attractive feature.
There is of course another option: The Way Of The Asshole. You won’t be any more popular than the Nice Guy, and very possibly less popular… but you’ll be fully cognizant of it, and won’t be surprised. And will feel no compunction to either act surprised or gracious in defeat.
American Space Technology for Exploring Resource Opportunities in Deep Space (ASTEROIDS) Act of 2014
Jul 302014
If the bill actually does what it seems to… here we have a new law that’s actually a good idea.
Panel sees ASTEROIDS Act as step in right direction for space property rights
Instead of the “stuff in outer space is the common property of all mankind” bullcrap, this bill would seem to put across the crazy notion that those who go to the bother of actually exploring and exploiting asteroids would actually *own* them.