December 29, 2020
Today's Lesson for Engineers is 'Sand in the Gears'
A couple of Danish Architects have developed a tent for use on Luna and/or Mars. LUNARK is a very interesting concept that folds up into a compact package that is covered in solar panels, and, using cutting edge origami technology, expands 560 percent to become an airtight habitat with an algae based air recycling system!
The two Nordic nerds recently went LARPING around northern Greenland and set up their airtight tent on a volcanic outcropping that is very close in temperature and terrain to the temperate zones on Mars. They then set it up, sealed the thing, and because they are awesome and take their design they entered and exited thru the airlock and went outside in self contained breathing apparatus. They also did a fair number of actual experiments relating to the project.
The two month experiment was a success which encountered no major issues except for the polar bear which is a matter of limited concern on the moon or Mars. The success of the air recycling system is quite a feat.
However, I have 2 concerns.
The airlock appears to be the toilet/shower, which makes sense, and is an inspired solution on one level as the airlock needs to be a decontamination station. However, this could lead to issues if one is outside, running low on air, while someone is in the airlock having a disagreement with their algae burgers.
The other concern is more integral, so much so that I think I should ask one of the Brickmuppet's Crack Team of Science Babes for a second opinion before I use the deep width and breadth of insight that a history degree gives someone commenting on architectural and engineering matters...
"Oh God, what Moon dust will do to that."
YES! All those expanding joints look like they are inherently exposed to dust. This is not an issue on the Greenland icecap, but lunar dust is ubiquitous, abrasive and electrically charged, Martian dust is less abrasive but it is also ubiquitous and corrosive and we've seen on Earth what can happen to relatively sealed mechanisms like firearms actions when exposed to sand, even good ones.
Maybe put the whole thing in a big bag?
Despite being called a 'tent' by the Daily Mail, this thing is not man-portable. It weighs 1738 kilos (3400 pounds) (which is a remarkable achievement for a habitat capable of sustaining 2 people with food water and air for 2 months). 1738 kilos translates roughly to 290 kilos on the Moon and 660 kilos on Mars. This is more of a camper.
None of this is to detract from the skill and verve of the inventors. It's a prototype, they are testing it in the field and braving polar bears to do it.
So Kudos to SAGA Space Architects! Any bugs can be worked out and as fundamental an issue as the dust problem seems to be, there are probably mitigation measures that can be taken...like a big bag. We've seen with Elon Musk's cornucopia of 'splodies that the way to get to space is to test things to destruction and find out what needs to be fixed. They are doing that with this and have done their math so well that they haven't had a failure yet.
This is a pretty awesome achievement.
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Citations for Civilizations End
Rod Dreher has an article current events, current trends, and future prospects that is eye opening and a bit scary. Unless you are very easily offended, I urge you to read the whole thing.
Dreher is a good and insightful writer, but he's a doctrinare conservative and a bit of a stick-in the-mud generally opposed to any whimsy on principle, so it is quite unexpected that he allowed a Naruto reference in his addenda.
Surely the end times are upon us.
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December 27, 2020
Oh Thank Goodness
It's just a crazy mad bomber.
Nothing to worry about.
Seriously, there was speculation on both sides of the political divide that whoever set off the massive explosion in Nashville was motivated by politics. The theories have included, but not been limited to, Trump voters, Bernie Bros, BLM, Antifa, Anti Government Militias on the Libertarian Right, Anti Government Militias on the Anarchist Left, people upset at AT&T, or a false flag operation by one of the above to frame another of the above, and all of the aforementioned scenarios were presented as a long stride down the dark path towards civil war.
Hence, the lack of coverage here* as there was not merely a lack of knowledge, but the actual opposite of knowledge. The information beyond the facts of the blast itself actually went into in the negative as the day progressed.
NOW THERE'S A LEAD.
And we fully acknowledge that said lead might itself might be bullshit**, but it appears the police have a suspect.
And to everyone's relief that suspect appears to be/have been a 5-G whack job ; somebody who believes that 5-G celltowers are spreading COVID-19.
This bit of Cray-Cray is far outside the realm of politics, and more importantly, seems, while very fringe, to be bi-partisan, nay, international stupidity.
So, on this one issue, we can all come together in a brief moment of national unity, the likes of which is normally reserved for furries.
*Well, that and the outage.
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December 26, 2020
How We Vanquished Christmas!
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December 25, 2020
Merry Christmas
Art by Shadow13Nicky
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December 24, 2020
52 Years Ago, Christmas Eve was Spectacular
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It's Over
Christmas is vanquished.
Art by Itou.
I hope everyone, whatever holiday you are celebrating, has a peaceful and happy celebration.
more...
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December 23, 2020
Mr. Kellgren: QUICK! Get it to Market Before January 20th!
I don't know if this is a joke or not.
It's not on KelTec's website as I type this.
But it seems to be a new development, and given that it's allegedly a Kel-Tec product, it's a more plausible notion than it would otherwise be from less whimsical manufacturers.
But if this is real, and there's really a pistol coming out in 5.7x28 NATO, one that uses the 50 shot P-90 mags, well, I'm afraid my cashflow is likely to take a hit.
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December 18, 2020
Note:
If one's goal is to reform and/or restore the Republic, then "Cross the Rubicon!" is not a particularly useful political slogan or policy.
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December 10, 2020
The Ramifications of a Faux-Pas in Current Year
Monday morning, I was at work, and had been at work about 45 minutes, 2 of my kidney stones are about to leave and go explore the world, and they were particularly impatient that day. Well, 45 minutes into the shift I comitted a terrible Faux-Pas. I left my position and went to the bathroom, where I rather loudly vomited.
In the current environment, this is a dreadful faux-pas.
So I got sent home and naturally could not come back until I got a certification of cleanliness from a state approved source.
The last time this happened I was out for nearly two weeks, because the test took 4 days to schedule and 6 days to get results from. The current estimate is longer, however, there are a limited number of 15 minute test facilities in Virginia, and I was able to secure an appointment with one of them for Thursday. The assumption being that the aggregate time lost would be less.
There was a little trepidation on my part since I have been under the weather this week since Monday, and my symptoms have included a splitting headache (but no fever to speak of).
Thursday I got up and drove across bridges, through tunnels and far away to make my appointment which was 40 minutes late because they are swamped. I got my most unpleasant test and waited for my 15 minute results which were ready in an hour.
The phone call said I was free of any association with that Chi-Com harridan Coronachan.
"My bat soup brings all the boys to the yard."
Yay!.
I noted on my phone the email that had the printed version of my cleanliness certification, and went home, did some laundry, slept, watched some Twitcheranians play Cyberpunk 2077 and called work to get the email I needed to mail the results to.
When I opened the email, I got this:
And I was all like:
And no I couldn't go to work, which was particularly annoying since every day I miss this time of year is a ridiculous amount of money lost.
Today, I spent almost two hours on the phone trying to resolve this matter and dealing with the downside of patient privacy laws....but I finally got a certification of cleanliness and can start working again tomorrow.
I suspect my illness was a reaction to the pain and having just gotten a flu shot since I don't want to be tag-teamed by CoronaChan and Influ-Enza.
I've had three days off now, which I've mostly spent in bed and doing some house cleaning, and making notes and outlines for posts that get overtaken by events.
So how are ya'll?
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December 08, 2020
Splodies Imminent !
Will they be controlled splodies or chaotic 'splodies? It's Space-X...so it'll be fun either way.
UPDATE: Well.....It was scrubbed.
UPDATE2 12/9: Well THAT was spectacular.
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Any Mandarin Speakers in the Audience?
I don't speak any Chinese. I was once told that my pronunciation of "nihao" was lewd.
So I don't know if these two videos are the smoking gun of our murderer after discharging into our abdomen...or they are the equivalent of a Downfall video.
Many years ago there was an add put out by the Tea Party which featured a Chinese Professor in 2030 talking about the U.S. had fallen because it was decadent, corrupt and had spent itself into bankruptcy.
This set of videos is so close to that political ad, it is both terrifying, and cause for suspicion. It's just too on the nose. The big difference is, that the Tea Party ad assumed no real malice on the part of China, merely envisioning them coming in and picking up the pieces after an American collapse. This one on the other hand, well, take 18 minutes of your time.....
Watch on Bitchute
The vid, (which despite its garish title card doesn't mention Hunter much) is hosted by a channel called Inconvenient Truths, which I'm not familiar with, and has not vanished from YouTube as of this typing.
This is concerning to say the least, and it's inclusion in a streamed lecture indicates supreme confidence they are in charge, completely and an aberration like Trump will never happen again. (Or, bullshit, one of the two.)
This bears some scrutiny. An independant Chinese translation would be a good place to start. Perhaps someone can to go to Politics and Prose and try to track down that clerk, surely he's moved on after 5 years, but if he can be tracked down the veracity of the story might be verified.
We do know that China is doing many of the things mentioned in this video. The rust belt is testament to that. But the specific identification of 1992 to 2016 as China's happy time and that the one time a spanner got in their works was when someone not bought and paid for by Wall Street* got behind Resolute Desk confirms so many of my biases that I must rub my chin and squint skeptically.
UPDATE2: The video just got yeeted from You-Tube, but I'm hosting it on my Bitchute channel.
* Particularly interesting, because the professor doesn't claim that Trump was pure, but that his bad debts had resulted in bad blood between him and Wall Street.
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Chuck Yeager Has Slipped the Surly Bonds of Earth
General Chuck Yeager, the first man to break the sound barrier has passed away at 97.
A veteran of WW2 and Viet Nam he was a test pilot from 1945-1957 where he ran many of the most cutting edge aviation designs through their paces in an era when the envelope of performance was being pushed to the limit and learning was by doing and making mistakes.
Yeager is best known for the first piloted flight past mach one, but was awarded many honors including the, Air Force Distinguished Service Medal the Army Distinguished Service Medal, 2 Silver Stars, 2 Legion of Merit awards, 3 Distinguished Flying Crosses, a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.
After retirement as a Brigader General, he set several civilian aviation records, worked on the commission investigating the loss of the Space Shuttle Challenger, acted as a technical advisor to Electronic Arts and was engaged in numerous educational initiatives. in 2012, on the 65th anniversary of his historic flight, he recreated it, in an F-15.
Passing away at 97, he lived a long, wondrous and fruitful life, but he was an American icon who will be sorely missed.
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December 07, 2020
79 Years Ago
One of the most frequently shared photos of the Pearl Harbor Attack is this one, which is sometimes idetified as the explosion of the battleship Arizona.
It is actually the destroyer Shaw (DD-373) suffering the explosion of her forward magazines.
Here is what she looked like after the raid.
Note that U.S.S. Shaw went on to be awarded 11 battle stars in the resulting war. She was decommissioned in October of 1945.
If you're interested in how that was possible, well, Drachinifel has three 30 min videos on the post-attack salvage operation.
If you're into naval history and not following Drachinifel, you are wrong.
UPDATE: It turns out that Wonderduck has already done an in-depth post on this ship that you should check out. As an added bonus, his had all its pictures correct from the start.
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December 06, 2020
ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?
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Programming Note
If I die of a heart attack buried under a mountain of boxes, blogging at this url will cease.
more...
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December 03, 2020
Every Time...
...someone says that this or that politician is "Literally Adolph Hitler", they can be ignored, because they are wrong, and full of....
Oh.
A man named after Adolf Hitler has swept to victory in regional elections in Namibia.
2020 is just a drive in movie now.
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December 02, 2020
Walter Williams 1936-2020
One of the wisest and most sane men of our age has left us. Walter E. Williams, Professor of economics at JMU, syndicated columnist, radio personality and inspiration for so many of us, passed away this morning of as yet unknown causes, aged 84.
He came from the direst and most hopeless poverty, served his country in Korea, went on to pursue an academic career and eventually became one of the most respected minds in America.
His books can be purchased here, they are worth it. Some of his wisdom can be gleaned here. We as a nation have suffered a loss that is hard to describe. A show he did for PBS can be found here and there is an interview with him here.
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November 29, 2020
We Live in a Society
...where there is a Hydraulic Press Channel.
"So cheer up everybody!"
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November 28, 2020
Meanwhile, in Jutland
So, a very dangerous mutated strain of CoronaChan emerged in Danish mink farms a bit over a week ago. The Danish government ordered the culling of all the minks in the country. Rather than incinerate them, the buried the dead minks in a cemetery resulting the following, genuine 2020 headline...
The story is somewhat vague on certain crucial details. Are they ambulatory dead minks? Or just dead minks that floated up like corpses in a New Orleans graveyard?
I assume the latter, but it is 2020, it doesn't specifically SAY that the dead minks aren't walking, and the calls for calm are coming from some spokesperson at The Guardian.
Note:
Remember that .22 long rifle is probably the best round to have in a zombie apocalypse, the ammunition is as available as anything else is right now, is relatively cheap, and is very light and compact in comparison to other types of ammunition. 1000 rounds only weigh in at 8 pounds with 10 plastic ammo cases. .22 lacks in stopping power, but is still lethal and capable of bringing down animals one is likely to be able to realistically dress and eat on the run, like birds and squirrels. With zombies, shot placement (brain) rather than conventional stopping power is the key.
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