Over at Encyclopedia Astronautica, Mark Wade has compiled a story that has almost everything.

The US Coast Guard

Icebreaking

The Cold War

Space Capsuels

Garbage Bombing

...and Ramming Speed!

Go read the whole thing!

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:01 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Oh the humanity!

Via: Across The Board

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 05:46 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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....yet I am merely disgusted and angry...

Colleen Doran posts on two recent events that put both many things into perspective.

I had been well aware of the teacher who after going all the way to the Sudan to help the Sudanese was rewarded with prioson and death threats for having students with the temerity to name a Teddy Bear "Mohammed". This story has been all over the internet. I've been remiss in not mentioning it. There is interesting action in the comments as well.

Note that the Muhammed Teddy Bear has been taken off E-Bay....as "offensive". How it was more offensive than the actual story is unexplained.

The main thrust of Colleen's post regards this horrific story that I had not heard before. A young french boy raped raped by Arab men (one of them HIV positive) in Dubai and the difficulty of finding justice, in part because (as one of her commenters put it) pitching is not a crime but catching is. More here.

From the ADS comments section.

....I would like to mention the other boy in the story, whose first name I know, but will not use, as the boy is still living in Dubai, and asked that his name not be used. Probably rightly, most of the focus has been on Alex, but this other boy must have been as traumatized as Alex by the events of that night. And the boy must be as brave as Alex, if not a little bit braver, because while Alex had to leave the country for his own protection, this boy, for whatever reason, still lives in Dubai, and still wanted to testify at the trial of his alleged attackers....

One gutsy kid.

Quote was exerpted from a comment by one Elmer Sackman who may be affiliated with this site advocating the boycott of Dubai.

This is just awful to say, but I'm not sure that is a good idea...

Keep in mind that the United Arab Emirates is widely regarded as one of the most modern of the Arab nations. Now, that is truly damming with faint praise. However, they have been very helpful against Islamic extremists (who take a murderously dim view of their modest social advancements)and from what I've been able to find out they ARE the least oppresive Arab state in the region aside, perhaps from Bahrain.

A boycott of the such a comparitavely modernized nation would send the message that "We're dammned if we do dammned if we don't...so why stand up to the people who will behead us when everyone else will pull the rug out from under us."

Carrots are as important in bringing about change as sticks.

On a national level there are pretty much a selection of bad choices. Let it slide...or push them into the arms of the Wahabi monster consuming so much of Islam in the area...

Terrible...Worse

That doesn't mean that citizens can't sign petitions and make their voices heard. Indeed this might be the best course of action and, indeed, a better one than any options that governments have available.

I'm going to vomit.

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This is the most awesomest thing ever!

OK...
...perhaps that is hyperbole...

...but I suspect that the Dali Lama is unlikely to want anybody killed because of it.

HT: Don
(Where does he FIND these things?)

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 02:43 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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For some time, I've had a partially written review of the Coyote Ragtime Show floating in the ether of blog purgatory. A combination of school, and other distractions as well as a severe case of Apathy towards the show have kept it there.

Now Ubu Roi has forced the issue with a long thoughtful and justifiably merciless disquetation on The Coyote Ragtime Show.

The show is an animated 70s action flick containing all the absurdities that implies and rife with with elements from American, Japanese and Hong Kong flavors of that particular dish. The show is almost a stream of consciousness of random encounters and complications. Of course, many of the impossibilities (long conversations during a 6 story fall) are anime tropes as well, that they are noticed as such is a testament to the shows failure to engage the audience after the first episode...

And the first episode IS good.

Tough as nails detective Angelica Barnes has been given a license by the president of...the...er...galaxy or something...to bring back the super criminal known as MISTER. She has arrived on a backwater planet to check out a lead in the local maximum security prison.

She is met by Chelsea Muir (superbly voiced in the dub by Monica Rial) who is arguably the most likable character in the show. Ostensibly a detective, Chelsea was almost certainly either an affirmative action hire or was given a commission in the vain hope of a quid pro quo involving her ample bosom, for Chelsea is barely literate and exceedingly scatterbrained. She is not dumb, however. It is strongly implied in the English version that she is dyslexic. She is a brilliant mechanic and has an eidetic memory. Her knowledge base and skillets are eclectic and unsystematic but what she is good at she is very good at. She is also idealistic and principled, which on this corrupt world would likely have gotten her fired or worse if Angelica Barnes opinion of her hadn't shifted from contempt to admiration. (By the end of episode 1 she signs on as Barnes assistant...gopher...something).

The two arrive at the prison to investigate the possibility that MISTER is incarcerated there, for a DUI of all things, when..

Suddenly....loligoth paratroopers...12 of them!

 Ah yes, Madame Marciano's 12 sisters, ruthless female android (?) assassins, each equipped with a different example of 20th century gunpr0n and dressed in costumes exhibiting varying flavors of gothieness ranging from debutantes, to maids to punkers to.....chimney sweeps....

Yes boys and girls by combining gunpr0n and cosplay with murderous maidens of mayhem the producers were able to cover bases on at least 30 different fetishes in one villain team!

This should have been the best series ever!

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 11:48 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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1 Chelsea is the ONLY reason I lasted as long as I did with the show.

I lasted 2-1/2 episodes.

Posted by: Wonderduck at Sun Dec 2 03:19:44 2007 (AW3EJ)

2 I blame Aug for ten episodes of my stupidity.

Posted by: ubu at Thu Dec 13 20:06:26 2007 (i3HGQ)

3 Perhaps a bit late now... But I stumbled across this looking for a picture of the sisters, and, well...

While I agree that the show was cheap, cliche fare (which I actually found very fun because I expected it to be cheesy and bad from the first episode) I disagree that Angelica's love for Mister was a sudden plot twist thrown in at the end. Maybe my judgement is skewed by a few lucky guesses from the first episode, but I saw that coming by episode two and she showed signs long before the finale that she had another motive than just justice for finding Mister.

That doesn't save it from being a fluff-fest filled to the brim with cheese, but I just can't hold that plot element against it.

Posted by: Koko at Thu Jul 24 12:03:33 2008 (33o/I)

4 Koko!

Wow!

We got visited by Koko!

Such August company! How are Betty, Bimbo and Fitz?

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sat Jul 26 19:10:32 2008 (V5zw/)

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James Rummel has the answer.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:07 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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This is rich.

Evil rightwing asshat comments on the Boots and Sabers blog, advocating the assasination of teachers and, amongst other things, speaking highly of the Columbine killers.

 ......Kids like Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold members of the Young Republicans club at Columbine. They knew how to deal with the overpaid teacher union thugs. One shot at a time! Too bad the liberals rip them; they were heroes and should be remembered that way.” 

What an unspeakably vile comment!

Well, this comment was reported to the police by a teacher who makes it his biddness to keep tabs on scary and sketchy sites like Boots and Sabers.

The police responded, and the Boots and Sabers bloggers, hoping no doubt to prevent mayhem, provided the police with the trolls IP address.  

'Right wing wacko' turns out to be the former president of the local teachers union, (or as he might say, an "overpaid teachers union thug") most likely trolling as an agent provocatuer. His 'sockpuppet' is a sub literate soldier who denigrates teachers.

The whole story is at Boots and Sabers. It should be noted that the B&S guys, while, working with the police on this, are expressing misgivings about the fact that the loon is being locked up.

It is apparant that the fellow is not a threat, just lying leftie scum, which is not a crime any more than it is to be a truthful nerdy right wing loon (for which there is much rejoicing!).

So, given the facts do you think they were right to give out the IP addy? If not why not? Also, do you think the teacher should be incarcerated for internet hijinks? Why or why not?

Hat tip: Instapundit

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:47 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Evel Knievel has died.

Knievel, a barnstorming motorcycle stuntman who gained as much notoriety from his spectacular crashes as his successes, was indeed a loon, but he was a brave and talented loon. He dressed in red white and blue which he wore like a like a superhero, complete with a cape!  Despite his ostentatious outfits, and the hucksterish nature of his profession, he was a rare dash of sincerity and optimism in a revoltingly cynical and despondent time.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 06:46 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Your IQ Is 125

Your Logical Intelligence is Below Average Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius Your Mathematical Intelligence is Genius Your General Knowledge is Exceptional

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 06:10 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'm insanely busy right now, but there is a very lengthy post on internet piracy going on over at Colleen Doran's blog,  The discussion has reached 85 posts in the comments and is well worth a read.

The post mainly concerns comic piracy but the subject matter is likely of at least academic interest to many anime fans.

Full Disclosure: I've watched fansubs and bought several DVD series because of them. Every few months I go to a bit torrent party to see the first few episodes of what's new in Anime.

The fansubbers, however, don't stop with the first few episodes, nor do they, as Stephen Den Beste suggested, reduce their video quality to you tube levels.

I have little sympathy  for the video companies who saddled us with region coding specifically to screw Japanese consumers and the new "solutions" to the piracy problem that tend towards things like this.

However, the technology has advanced to the point that I fear we're going to see a "tragedy of the commons" in several artistic industries in a few years.

Well, I'm off to work. Be back in a day or two.

Update:
Suddenly...related posts...lots of them, some quite....special.
It's like Colleen is the hundredth monkey or something.
Actually this flurry of interest is strictly anime related and seems to stem from this editorial at ANN . (HT: Stephen who has further thoughtful screedage here).
Avatar has industry insider perspective here, and points out the unlikelihood of RIAA style crackdowns on fansubbers here. While some may be very happy to hear this, the jist of his argument is that the Anime companies,  because they don't have the financial resources...these are small operations frequently run by people who were fans of this stuff and they don't have the spare change to deal with the lawsuits.  This is unsurprising, in my experience, particularly on campus recently,  "standing up to the man" generally means taking pot shots at those who can't hit back.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 01:08 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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One of the Brickmuppets' crack team of science babes runs the numbers on hydrogen and points us to this recent story about a breakthrough in bacterial hydrogen generation.

The results came as a result of experiments with the sort of microbial fuel cell described here. This design produces electricity in small amounts but its big payoff was in hydrogen, 288 percent the energy in hydrogen that was put in.
This is not quite as impressive as it sounds. For example, if one replaced all the cars with H2 it would require the generation of just over 1/3rd the energy required by all cars to fuel them. However all hydrogen schemes that don't extract the hydrogen from hydrocarbons have high energy costs, if this is scalable it is orders of magnitude more efficient and an energy producer rather than looser. That is big.It is also capable of processing waste and generating its own energy while doing it.

As a waste disposal technique this has real potential to be tremendously helpful (again, if it is scalable).

Hydrogen is unsuited for aircraft or ships but given enough cheap energy a case can be made for H2 fueled fuel cell cars. Their range would suffer,( from what I've read, about 150-200 miles is about the best one could realistically get without turning the fuel tank into a bomb) and that assumes very efficient fuel cells. If there are H2 stations everywhere, this becomes less of a problem.
However, this process, let alone any of the others, would only make sense for hydrogen production for cars if a vast amount of cheap power were available.


So, like a lot of alternate energy proposals, it is pretty much dependent on nuclear power being developed on a very large scale in this country.

Atomic power is  the future.

_{Science babe is actually Maria from Sakura Wars. (Which I should watch at some point)}

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 12:52 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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1 Maria as a science babe? Try Kohran, man... ;p

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Sat Nov 24 00:57:23 2007 (LMDdY)

2 Show me Kohran conveniently positioned in front of a chalkboard and I'll consider it.

 

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sat Nov 24 12:19:26 2007 (tFEtx)

3 Have you read what Zubrin wrote about hydrogen?
http://www.thenewatlantis.com/archive/15/zubrin.htm

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Sat Nov 24 14:21:05 2007 (9imyF)

4 One question I've asked repeatedly and still have no answer.  Hydrogen is the leakiest substance in existenence.  If we assume that approximately 20% is lost in shipping in ahndling, what will be the effect on the environment?

Posted by: Jerry in Detroit at Sat Nov 24 17:14:25 2007 (hk49F)

5

Hydrogen is not the leakiest substance, helium is. And losses won't be that great.

But even if it were, it wouldn't have any substantial environmental effect. Hydrogen is so light that released hydrogen rises rapidly. In the upper atmosphere, ultraviolet from the sun would cause molecular breakdown, resulting in production of water vapor. The quantity of new water vapor created in this way would be negligible compared to existing sources.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Sat Nov 24 18:01:35 2007 (+rSRq)

6 Regards Zubrin, I have a great deal of respect for him on several issues, but I'm very skeptical of his methanol solution. That said, his problems with hydrogen are quite well founded and I think I touched upon most of them.

This is the first H₂ generating system that produces more energy than it takes in.This is big even if only on an academic level. IF this method is quick enough to allow on demand production then H₂ cars might make sense. The generation has to be on demand because the stuff leaks through solid steel.That IF is indeed a big one.

One neat but dubious idea for using Hydrogen is to blend it with methane to supercharge the methane and improve its energy density. Where the methane come from is, debatable, either natural gas or perhaps millions of daisy chained cows.

The big application for this process (if it has one) may well be in the sewage treatment industry.As to whether it is better than thermal depolymerization for this I can't even guess.

H₂ is utterly unsuited to aircraft or ships in any event.

Personally, for cars, I like biodiesel from algae far better than this. It has good energy density (better than gasoline) and very few handling issues. Even those can be utterly eliminated if small amounts of petro diesel are blended in. Like other kerosenes it can be used in ships and aircraft. Like all biofuels, it requires energy input. Thus we need a powerful cheap source of electricity....we need atomic power.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sat Nov 24 18:08:18 2007 (tFEtx)

7 Thanks for commenting everybody.

Regards hydrogens environmental effects, I do wonder if any studies have been done on what the inevitable vast quantities of hydrogen leakage reaching the upper atmosphere might do to ozone...

Baring any unwelcome surprises from that, I think Stephen is right, the impact should be close to nil, It should reenter the water cycle or space, there would be long term effects with a component of the planets  total water mass drifting off over centuries, but in centuries we should be able to grab some comets to make up the difference, and will likely have something better by then anyway.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sat Nov 24 18:15:01 2007 (tFEtx)

8

This is the first H₂ generating system that produces more energy than it takes in.

Unless you're speaking figuratively, then if they're claiming that, it's a scam. Nothing produces more energy than it takes in; that's against the rules. And you don't get to break the rules.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Sat Nov 24 22:06:37 2007 (+rSRq)

9 Poor typing....

It generates the hydrogen biologically. There is energy being introduced via the bacteria, that for the purposes of determining the electrical bill  is not counted. It does not violate the rules any more than photosynthesis does.

 It does not violate the rules.

It may not ultimately be practical, but it is guilty of no crime.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sat Nov 24 23:02:12 2007 (tFEtx)

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The art and science of writing romance novels....explained.

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Here is an interesting bit of nautical history.

The Explorer, a submarine from the civil war era  has been identified on Pearl Island Panama.


The vessel was ahead of its time with lockout chambers to allow divers to leave the vessel while submerged. Unfortunately as this resulted in the whole submarine becoming pressurized to the depth it was at, and because it allowed the crew to stay down far longer than normal, and because dive tables weren't invented until 1910, the entire crew perished after a long dive.

The use of the submarine for civilian applications (in this case pearl diving) was quite unusual a that time.

There seems to be some debate as to the origin of the submarine, some sites say it was built for the US Navy during the Civil War, some have said it was built afterwards for entirely civillian applications. Whichever, it's designer one Julius Herman Kröhl made significant contributions to the USN during the war, and if the Wikipedia entry is accurate was very much the unions answer to Mathew Fontain Maury...at least in underwater explosives.

There is also some debate about the cause of the death of Kröhl and his crew. The reports cited "fever" which likely meant malaria, however, the whole crew being stricken and the vessels dive profile would seem to make the decompression accident a more likely cause.



Much more including schematics  here.
Note that this article claims this was the first case of decompression sickness amongst US citizens. I'm pretty sure this is hooey as diving bells had been in use since the 1500s and hardhat diving was going on in the UK in the 1790s. There was enough interest in the US that an improved helmet was patented in the US in 1834. I'm pretty sure somebody had had a decompression accident before this. The article is quite informative for all that. I'm very upset I missed his recent talk at Nauticus.

This story is particularly sad because the sub worked! It had been tested several times without incident. If dive tables had been available the vessel would have been a success.

Sometimes progress fails for one missed detail or unknown factor.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:54 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Via Eaglespeak comes this humbling post from Commander Salamander.
It's short, read the whole thing.

Fortunes can be won and lost but honor can rarely be regained.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:47 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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   Few countries have been as accommodating to immigrants in recent years as the United Kingdom.  However, that is not enough for this asshat.

He moaned: “I miss Algeria. The English people are not helpful, they are so unfriendly and rude.

“I thought I had made friends in Croydon, but when I ask them for money they don’t give me it, so I know they can’t be my friends.”
...............................

Mr Tabet is entitled to return to Algeria at his own expense and admits that he “does not like it here”.

But he refuses to do so and says Britain will have to pay for his travel if it wants him to leave.

He moaned: “I miss Algeria. The English people are not helpful, they are so unfriendly and rude

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:24 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Wow thanks!

On the one hand there will be fewer woolly headed loons voting.
On the other hand there will be fewer people to pay for the sort of Ponzi schemes the woolly headed loons expect to pay for their old age.
On the gripping hand...there will be fewer wooly headed loons to vote against ending said Ponzi schemes.



As always, Eric Scheie uses his damnable logic to wipe the grin off my face.

HT both links: Instapundit

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The Canadian Cruise ship Explorer has been stove by a small iceberg off Antarctica! In this photo she is on her beam ends as I type this may already have sunk. More here.



The crew and passengers were rescued by the Norwegian cruise ship Nordnorge which transported them to King George Island. They will be transferred to the Chilean research station there and be flown to Punta Arenas as soon as weather permits.


The National Geographic Society cruise ship Endeavor also raced to the scene and an ABC (US) reporter aboard filed this report with video.

The MV Explorer was an interesting  ship with a unique history. Constructed in 1969 the "little red ship" was an ice strengthened cruise ship ahead of her time in that she was intended for what would later be called "eco-tourism".

 The vessel was the first civilian ship to negotiate the northwest passage unescorted. She had sailed farther north and farther south than any other cruise ship and had been the first cruise ship to sail the full length of the Amazon and the first cruise ship to dock in Iquitos Peru. The vessel had rescued the crew of an Argentinian vessel that had struck a rock off Anvers Island and had been used to conduct relief and medical operations in the Amazon.  She was bought by the Canadian ecotourism company G.A.P. Adventures in 2004.

Some question is being raised over "deficiencies" found by both Lloyds inspectors in the UK and Port State Control inspectors in Chile.

  Deficiencies recorded were: two on fire safety measures; one on life saving appliances; one for ship's certificates and documents, and one deficiency recorded for structural safety. She was seen at the time in Greenock's JWD dock for repair

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 06:49 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Today is the day to give thanks.

For me there is much to be thankful for.

Not landing on the rake when I fell off the roof for one.


But there are many other things both more and less profound that cause me to feel exceptionally blessed.

However, I'm going to take this moment to give thanks for one of the greatest moments of broadcast TV EVAH!!!



UPDATE: Via Murdoc, the outcome.
UPDATE 2: Wonderduck reports that due to rights issues the DVD collection is pretty much unwatchable.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 06:12 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Here is a PDF on the organization and equipment of the German Sea Rescue Service.

This private organization, which operates on donations is interesting in its own right. It is a very highly regarded Coast Guard, yet is not a branch of the German government. It fulfills the niche of Coast Guard (minus any statutory responsibilities) without taking a cent of taxpayer money (unless said taxpayers donate it).

Equally interesting is their kit, for they have some of the most advanced rescue boats on the planet. I've mentioned some of their ships before, but this gives the detailed overview of them that I'd been looking for for some time. Robust and ice strengthened vessels almost exactly the size the Coast Guard is looking for, they certainly bear looking at.

Of course these vessels have limited area of operations and so range and crew accommodations are  less than a Coast Guard cutter would have, but they may have some potential for further growth.

The large rescuee accommodations are a very useful feature  and the helicopter decks, while small, give these vessels an interesting capability for such a small  patrol boat.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 06:02 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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This is deep.
Mabey...

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 03:15 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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