June 22, 2017
Spoiler Warning!
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A Clever Solution to the Boycott Problem
Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons and Karl Kasarda on Inrange TV have come up with a response.
It's a reasonable solution. Indeed, being independently wealthy is generally my preferred solution to most problems.
Note that they do have some thoughtful things to say about the implications of demonetization (and internet boycotts in general).
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June 21, 2017
A Republic if We Can Keep It
A couple of things have just bugged me lately...
"This isn't gonna be a rant about politics again is it?"
Probably...
But it's below the fold so you don't have to be triggered, distracted or appalled if you don't want to be.
more...
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June 20, 2017
The Only Battle That Counts Is The Last One
And now for something refreshingly silly.
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Cool Site , Cool Ship
A few days ago we posted some links to cool sites dealing with space and futurism. Now, one of The Brickmuppet's Crack Team of Stoic Space Babes points us to one we missed:
Fragomatic does cgi animations of space related topics including actual design studies by NASA. Here, he has two videos on Nautilus-X, a design study we reported on back in 2011 and which has been the focus of some renewed interest over the last eight months. 
There's a good deal more stuff in the same vein at his site.
Regarding Nautilus-X, it made waves when proposed, not only because of its features (it is very scaleable, has artificial gravity and impressive passive as well as active radiation shielding) but also because of its predicted low cost, far less than that of the Orion program. This is due to the fact that the ship is not intended for reentry, many of the components are off the shelf (or extrapolations of off the shelf) equipment and because the designers focused on the habitation, logistics and payload and deemed propulsion someone else's problem. The design is essentially a space station with an adapter/shock-absorber module intended to interface with any of several NASA propulsion modules, both existing and in development. The VASIMR module currently under development is the preferred system, but several ion or even chemical propulsion systems like the Centaur could be used.
I tracked down a recording of the presentation to NASA by the designer. His presentation begins at about the 26 minute mark and follows this powerpoint. He explains the design philosophy as being developed from that for the Lunar Excursion Module and his experience with NRO spy satellites. Intriguingly, he explains the latter as is the design origin of the distinctive bow section, with its folding out air lock and bridge. The centrifuge is an extrapolation of an existing spin-stabalization system used on a few satellites. It is 60 feet across and capable of producing 1-g at a tad under 10RPM. However, that's a bit high for comfort so lower speeds and gravities are expected to be used.
Note that the first 25 minutes of the presentation concern an overview of cis-lunar infrastructure ideas of which the Nautilus-X is only one component.
The response to the Nautilus-X proposal in the recording is quite enthusiastic. The engineers seem really impressed, not only by the logic of the design, but by the attention to cost, minimizing design risk and extensive detail work already done.. The design is remarked upon as being particularly well thought out and economical. There is some discussion of the centrifuge and the discussion goes into detail regarding how the half scale prototype would be integrated into the ISS and the way the system is designed to use water pumps to compensate for asymetrical loading due to crewmembers moving around.
The proposed centrifuge test is particularly important. We don't have any idea what the minimum gravity to avoid health issues is. It might well be 1g. We probably want to find that out before people start settling Mars.
This is the sort of thing NASA needs to be doing more of.
'Stoic Space Babe" is by Takeshi Fujisawa , nicked from the box-art of a Hasegawa kit. You can buy his stuff here.
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June 18, 2017
Well Then: That's Not a Good Thing to See When One Clicks on Drudge
Let's review:
We have over 1000 troops on the ground in Syria, a country whose government has not given us permission to be there and which is a very important ally of Russia. Russia, in addition to possessing items of some interest also has thousands of troops on the ground in Syria helping to protect that country (an important ally of their's) by shooting at the Jihadists we are defining as moderates and ostensibly backing. Meanwhile, while we are fighting the (mostly) different jihadis in ISIS (which Russia is also fighting). So, Russian and U.S. troops are on opposite sides of a civil war, armed and both sides are shooting at people who are trying to kill them and that the other side is trying to defend in an area where at least two factions are using poison gas. Iran also has large forces engaged against ISIS and in support of Syria but additionally is giving support to...Hezbollah. Turkey, which happens to have of one of the largest armies in the world, is also involved...mainly as a spoiler but also to exterminate our nominal allies the Kurds, who are a completely different group from the aforementioned revolutionary groups we are backing and are also fighting ISIS.
The shootdown aside, this mess in Syria is a lot more consequential than the coverage it's been getting would seem to indicate.
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June 17, 2017
Stephen Furst Has Passed Beyond the Rim
Everyone is talking about his roll as Flounder, which was indeed legendary, but this is where he really shined.
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45 + 3
Regarding the late unpleasantness in Alexandria, as I understand it, if some utter nutbar were to start killing congressmen with the intention of flipping the legislature, then their threshold would be 45 representatives and three senators.
Most accounts have the republican congressional baseball team at 33 members so even given the possibility that a few non-team members might be present and more crucially if Mr. sweetness and light's shooting skills had been closer to Annie Oakley than Skippy the Stormtrooper, he'd still not have changed the world.
So rejoice. In order to flip congress, one would have to kill 48 people.
These are people who are public figures and as part of their job descriptions mingle with the public and aside from the house leadership, have no specialized security.
So fear not. One would need some way of coordinating such an attack, and people willing to do it. Hell, one would practically need a whole bunch of very dedicated paramilitary street thugs who see the other side as inhuman monsters.
Then one would only control one branch of government. The President and Vice President would both have to be impeached by the new majority and surely a bunch of congress critters would stand on principal and not allow that to happen to such a popular and beloved President.
So there.
Enjoy the weekend and relax.
Art by Ruhig
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We Don't Discuss Such Vile Things
Via Dustbury, who does note a silver lining in the above picture.
...except at home, behind closed doors and for the sole purpose of procreation.
I do note that it's next to a sign referencing tobacco sales to minors, so this is serious business.
Gracious. It's not just Oregon.
In pondering scenarios of how civilization might end, I must admit that I did not see this one coming.
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According to Sources Who Remain Transitive...
Despite this being a Zero Hedge link, I think the associated prediction is reasonable, solidly argued and very likely to be true.
"It's a counterespionage breakthrough!!"
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June 14, 2017
This is Very Bad
By now you know about the shooting of the congressmen and their staff in Alexandria while they were practicing for the annual congressional baseball game. Fortunately, no one has died as of yet. However, if reports are true and the shooter was targeting Republicans, then assasination chic may now be a summer fashion trend, in which case we are in for a very rough ride.
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June 13, 2017
Calling In
I'm currently staying with a friend who is recovering from heart surgery. I'll be back in a few days.
In the meantime there is this...
Art by Isu
I'm unclear on what, exactly, "this" is, but I'm pretty sure it's something.
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June 10, 2017
Places of Interest
in the comments section Madrocketsci inquires (in reference to Isaac Arthur's excellent channel)...
...where do people like this hang out online?Well, we linked to that one from here so, ipso facto, Brickmuppet Blog is a place where people who like this hang ou...
Art by Dani Ikapi
Oh.
Well then....
Atomic Rocket is a superb resource for near term space exploration concepts. It is primarily geared towards providing authors a reference to assist in providing realism in spec-fic
...so they can write SF "the way God and Heinlein intended"
Scroll down to the very bottom of the linked page for a sitemap. Be warned that this is digital crack. The engine list page alone will...
...
...
Damn. The sun is setting.
I should get back to the post....
Scott Lowther's site is named The Unwanted Blog for reasons that are quite unclear given that the correct response to it is "Do Want!". Mr. Lowther also runs Aerospace Projects Review, which produces several online magazines that look at forgotten aerospace history from an engineering perspective.
Next Big Future is a science-news blog that focuses mainly on disruptive technologies and futurism.
Glasstone.Blogspot.com focuses on things that might keep the future from happening, like global thermonuclear war. It is dreadfully non-intuitive to navigate but there is a cornucopia of information on civil defense and high energy weapons effect on that site.
The Secret Projects Forum is a vast message board dedicated mainly to forgotten transportation and weapons projects. Unlike most such sites it has a crackerjack team of moderators that purge unverified or made up content, so one doesn't accidentally find Antarctic Space Nazis in one's research into Horten Coal Fired Ramjets.
Jerry Pournelle's site is a stream of consciousness that touches on many futuristic topics and how to achieve them through a strategy of technology. It also has tips for how to preserve past knowledge and survive in the event that something stupid and terrible happens like a global thermonuclear war.
The excellent Colony-Worlds focused on space colonization but hasn't been active since 2012. It still exists and has still got a good deal of info... while it lasts.
Centauri Dreams looks at deep space exploration with the ultimate goal of manned trans-stellar voyages.
Icarus Interstallar is a non-profit advocacy group dedicated to bringing about a manned interstellar mission by 2100. They fund various engineering studies looking at the problem from different directions.
The Lifeboat Foundation is an organization exploring various ways to preserve humanity in the event of an extinction level event such as a Hostile AI, asteroid strike, plague or global thermonuclear war.
Nasa Spaceflight.com, is not as far as I know, NASA affiliated. It has forums for discussion of space related issues, but most of the high-end, credentialed discussions of speculative projects are moved to the L-2 forum which requires a subscription.
The Space Review is an online magazine dedicated to space exploration, space business and space law.
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June 07, 2017
Elmer Fudd: Super Genius
Isaac Arthur has one of my favorite You-Tube channels and I just realized I've never linked to him. That is a travesty on my part. This is a a superb channel focusing on futurism.
This video on the Kardashev Scale is a good primer for the channel.
Beware!
The fellow has an epic speech impediment that inspired the post title.
This channel is online video crack and if one is not careful one will lose hours, possibly days basking in the sheer awesomness of it.
Use responsibly!
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June 06, 2017
72 Years Ago: The Longest Day
32 years ago Reagan gave this speech, in remembrance of the 40th anniversary of that battle.
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So There Were 1/1 Scale Dakimakuras From That Show?
Wait...that would mean...
At least now we know. The answer is 22.9 feet.
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The Killer App of Mu.Nu
I started to mention this in a previous post, but it deserves to be above the fold.
A bit over 10 years ago, after 1021 posts on Blogger, I was about to throw in the towel. Google had bought BlogSpot shortly after I started blogging in 2003, but this was of no concern until early '07 when 2 things happened. There were some system crashes and issues with the image posting system. More importantly The Netroots types began a campaign to file complaints with Google/Blogger about "offensive content" in blogs whose opinions they found uncongenial and report others as spam blogs. Blogger/Google was only too happy to oblige. As a result of that, numerous blogs whose opinions vexed the Netroots were threatened, locked pending review, or just vanished. There had been a similar purge of right leaning You Tube Channels that had happened a bit earlier, (remember when Hot Air was mainly a companion site to their You Tube channel?). That censorious annoyance had been similarly instigated by complaints from the Netroots.
Brickmuppet Blog was protected from this mainly by my lack of talent which placed me near the bottom of the blogosphereic ecosystem and the fact that it's not really a political blog. Still, I did actually get one vague threat from a reader to have me taken down...because I guess getting a Z-list blogger with 6 readers to shut up is a real power trip. Between that and the short lived technical glitches, I was about to throw in the towel. I had been made very aware of how ephemeral any work consisting entirely of electrical zeroes and ones actually is.
However, I inquired about different hosting services and took the advice of Wonderduck and the late Steven Den Beste, and signed up here in Mee.nu as a Beta tester (my utter lack of IT skills being a feature and not a bug in that capacity). Although the very first comment on this blog was a thinly veiled threat, I've been very happy here.
Since then I've come to appreciate even more the absolute importance of the fact that Pixy Misa (the owner, proprietor of Mee.nu) is completely dedicated to free speech. Unless they are spammers, child pornographers or malware-bots, he and his crackerjack team of pixel elves aren't going to screw with any of the 65,000 odd websites hosted here.
Additionally, unlike some other platforms, Mee.nu doesn't have a truth and safety council, doesn't shadowban users, and allows one to type as many characters as one needs to get out a coherent thought (actual level of coherence is the typists responsibility).
Furthermore, unlike some services Mee.nu doesn't integrate seamlessly into every aspect of one's online existence. That may, at first, seem like a bug, but in an age of weaponized empathy...it is not. The other day I noted noted an online poll that concerned a politically charged topic. It required one to log in via a service we won't name (but it rhymes with SpaceCrook). This of course means that everyone in one's feed knows how one voted, and sets off all manner of flags. Rejoice Mr. Parsons! The telescreen has arrived!
But not here in Mee.nu.
Operating from a vast underground bunker hidden somewhere in the guano mines of Niue, Pixy Misa interacts with the world mainly through a surprisingly lifelike teleoperated animatronic in Sydney. Pixy oversees several servers scattered across the globe in places that are not North Korea, China or The Platt River Networks men's room.
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June 05, 2017
Now Melbourne
Again.
The Quaker, Pastafarian, Lutheran, Buddhist, Zoarstrian, Hindu, Sikh, Samaritan, Taoist, Jediist, Druze, Yadzidi, Pentacostal, Shintoist, Crowlyite, Hawenneyuvian, Jew, Mormon, Jain, Methodist, Bahaiist....or, whatever....was killed in the process of killing and wounding innocents, but he appears to have had quite a history.
Khayre was jailed in 2012 for a violent home invasion, and had been accused of involvement in a terror plot on Holsworthy Army Barracks in Sydney.
Well intentioned but blinkered bleeding heart judges are a pernicious hazard usually only encountered in civilized countries.
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A Cracking Good Fellow Has Left Us
Here is a clip from The Wrong Trousers.
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June 04, 2017
Programming Note
Those who look below the fold should beware of being beset by bushels of blogger banality.
As atonement, (for that and the alliteration) here is a cute girl riding an allosaurus.
Art by Sukabu
more...
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