Saturday, January 9, 2016

Fiddling around with Facebook

Seems like my page is inaccessible now.  Probably because of some conflict.  The conflict occurred once I had set up a new page, but with slightly different information.  It seems to have confused the new page with the old one, but now the new one cannot be accessed for some reason.

I've spent considerable time trying to link the two up since they are both mine.  As for the old one that is now the main one, I thought it was gone.  Evidently, pages never disappear from Facebook.

It's basically a mess now.


How Musk can get 100 colonists to Mars every two years

Actually, it all depends upon how many launches he can do.  He doesn't necessarily need a really big rocket either.  But he will probably need something bigger than a Falcon Heavy.  A Saturn V class rocket could do it.  Maybe.

It may be possible to send 10 at a time, but launch 10 times during a launch window.  A launch window could last as long as a month.  Since he may be able to set aside at least two launch pads, that means five launches per pad.  If he gets a third operational, that means just three or four.

Getting 10 at a time is a lot easier than getting a 100.

Use of launch windows could do that, but what about the earlier discussion?  There will be two years between launch windows.  That means a lot of time could be devoted toward massing methane/LOX at a refueling station at EML-2.  Most of the LOX could come from the moon.

He would need a base on the moon to mine the LOX and to launch it to EML-2.  He may want to reuse the shuttle craft any number of times.  Add the refueling base in order to complete the facility/system.

Delta-V for a Mars transfer orbit from EML-2 is less than 1 km/sec.  A rocket from Earth could refuel, then head on to Mars.  This would be repeated 10 times with 10 people on board on each trip from Earth to EML-2.  Ten launches times ten people per launch equals 100 people per launch window every 2 years.

Each launch from Earth could put 100k pounds or more at EML-2, assuming that a Saturn V class rocket delivers it.  Let's say you bring 20k pounds of methane from Earth.  That means that 80k pounds of lunar oxygen from the lunar base could give you as much reaction mass to land on Mars as landing on the moon.  That 100k can be the reaction mass from EML-2 to a Mars landing.  You may not need that much.  Or you may need more.  I haven't checked that out as of this writing, but it is possible to use aerodynamic braking in the Martian atmosphere to get a lot of that Delta-V without using fuel.

Another possibility is to make heat shields on the moon.  You have two years to prepare for each launch window.  This means that you have less to launch from the Earth, which would be helpful.  If you were really ambitious, you could make fuel tanks on the moon, too.

This leaves 80k pounds that can be used for the life support hardware and fuel tanks from Earth.  He'd have to cram 10 people in there, and they would have to be able to survive such a journey of 7 months, then land on Mars.

Even if he could do all this flawlessly, he isn't finished yet.

He may want a base prepared on Mars before landing there.  You've got a 100 people coming in, and they may want to stretch their legs.  That provided that they could still walk.


Duck!

Not the kind that goes quack, either.  ( One is tempted to laugh, but au contraire, mon frère.  It's not really funny.)

From Instapundit

snicker


Texas Governor Greg Abbott Calls for Convention of the States

Ace

comment:

If I had any nit to pick, I'd say make a simple majority to overturn a Supreme Court decision as opposed to a 2/3 requirement.  Party politics would make the status quo most likely to stick.

By the way, why doesn't the GOP propose some of these amendments now that they have a majority in Congress.  If any passed, they could go the usual route instead of an Article V.

h/t Instapundit


Really sad

The GOP's talk about Cruz being ineligible is just shooting themselves in the foot.

Trump brought it up, or did he?  Doesn't matter.  The ship has already sailed.  No question that one of Hussein's parents wasn't American.  The question was whether or not he was born in Hawaii or somewhere else.  Hussein wasn't even answering the questions, and the so-called right didn't have the nerve to ask anyway.  But now they want to disqualify Cruz because they think that makes themselves seem "principled".  If they were "principled", they would have demanded a Supreme Court decision back then.  If they already got that decision, and they may have gotten from their refusal to take up the case in the first place, then the boat has already sailed.  Sheesh.

In any case, it makes no difference.  You have the precedent of Hussein, so why make a big deal out of it NOW???

Cruz is American by birth as much as Obama is.  If it was good enough for Obama, it should be good enough for Cruz.  That Obama is claiming to be born in America is a claim that hasn't been thoroughly proven.

Of course, the GOP is acting completely differently than the Dems.

In 2008, you weren't even allowed to ask.  Hussein could blow it all off until he had to produce something that looked legit, and even then, there were issues.  No matter.  The GOP would do nothing, which is their habit.

Cruz should act like Hussein did.  Just call them racists for even asking and blow them off.  But nooooooooo.  He is caving just like the GOP always does.  He gives them all the pertinent info, even more so than Hussein ever did UP UNTIL THIS VERY DAY.   The rank and file?  The Dems don't care.   Hussein could be Al Qaeda or ISIS and they wouldn't care.  Proof of that????   Look at Hillary.  What more proof do you need that the Dems don't care?  But you???  You act like what they say and do even matters.  No more backbone than an eclair, to borrow a phrase.

What a bunch of wusses.

Update:

I could swear that the Dems are going to go for payback for the Bamster.  But the Bamster never got any grief from the GOP on his eligibility.

Not that the Democrats actually care anything about the rule of law.  They do when they think they can get an advantage out of it.

About the only way the Dems can win is to try to disqualify the GOP nominee.  Hillary can't win, especially if Trump trains his considerable firepower at her.  Sanders?  The Dems don't want to run a Socialist at the top of their ticket.  That would make them honest, which conflicts with their catechism.  They'd never take a chance on that.

Curious turn of events.  Maybe the Dems think there's an advantage for them to bring this up.


Friday, January 8, 2016

Revisiting the water situation

Not too long ago, I came upon an ad for a gasoline powered generator that seemed capable of greatly improving my power situation.  The wind and solar options don't seem so appealing in the winter months.  An overcast sky can nix the solar option completely, so a backup is necessary.

If wind were to be chosen, it can do a lot, but it isn't cheap.  But this gas powered generator can deliver several kilowatts of power and it claims to be able to run a computer.  If it can run a computer, it may be able to handle most anything you can throw at it.

So that intrigued me on the subject of water.  I looked into the these atmospheric water generators, but they are ridiculously expensive.  Back to the dehumidifier, it seems.  But even a dehumidifier will soak up a lot of wattage.  This little generator can fill that gap.

Of course you've got to spend the bucks on gasoline.  In the end, if I can pull a couple gallons of water out each day, I won't have to worry about water.  Nor would I have to haul it in.

Naturally, I can keep up with my other plans to capture rainfall.  This would be for crops though.

It also occurred to me that I could put the dehumidifier in the greenhouse and recapture the lost evaporated water from the plants.

The cost to buy the hardware?   Less than a thousand.  A thousand for water independence?  Sounds like a plan, or at least worthy of an experiment and try it out.

This goes into the water sub-series of the off-the-grid main series of posts.

Prev   Next


Key to Hillary conspiracy to subvert classification system revealed?

Legal Insurrection blog



comment:



I think she's been schlonged.



If not, then we will be.




One fairy tale begets another

Claim: Climate Change Forced Bigfoot to Migrate to America.

comment:

After reading this, I think the lead is a bit misleading.  They aren't talking AGW, but just plain old natural climate change.  Plain old climate change is what melted the glaciers from the last Ice Age.  Humans couldn't have caused that.  The Industrial Revolution was thousands of years into the future.

They really weren't talking about the legendary Big Foot, either.  Big Foot doesn't exist, except in highly imaginative types, just like AGW doesn't exist, except in highly imaginative types ( as a manner of speaking).

Hillary is said to be going after UFOs.  Another misleading lead?  Anything to get attention.,


Go Figure: Austrian Police Also Covered Up Their Own Sex-Mob Attacks

 Ace of Spades blog

comment:

The liberal catechism put into practice:  Chiefly among the triad of the catechism is Untruth.  The other two is equality and peace.  But the equality is false too, and so is the peace.

Drill down deep enough and all you get is Untruth.  There's no there there when it comes to liberalism.  Just a drive for power and control.


Best of how to category

Still trying to streamline this process.  There may not be very many posts listed here.

Trailer Plans
Activated Charcoal Powder For Water Filtration Experiment
Additional info about desert plants
How to Make Quicklime (with Pictures)
Dead Sexy
6 Things Bloggers Can Learn From Dr. Seuss

The one titled "Dead Sexy" took a long time to get to that.  So long to do it that I didn't watch all of it.

If you want to promote your blog, bring the topic of sex into it.  Yep, that just might do it.



Thursday, January 7, 2016

3D Printing: Medical Applications | Michael Balzer and Pamela Scott | TEDxCibeles

Inspirational story of how a couple working together overcame what ordinarily would have been an inoperable cancer in the wife through some groundbreaking techniques that the husband partially came up with himself even though he's not a doctor.

from the description of the video:

Published on Sep 1, 2015
Save someone's life with a brain tumor through 3D printing technology

Michael Balzer is the founder of ‘slo 3D creators’, a 3D print, scan, design and education studio located in San Luis Obispo, California. In providing services for those who need their ideas produced in tangible form, or existing tangible objects converted to a digital form, he works with students, artisans, engineers, architects, manufacturers, and inventors to take their ideas to next level.

Pamela S. Scott has served the residents of San Luis Obispo County as a therapist in private practice since 1991. She has worked for non-profit & county social service agencies, as well as being a part of a multi-disciplinary treatment team.As a therapist, it’s her job to look for creative solutions to all kinds of problems.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx





Delta-V to Mars via EML-2 vs. Delta-V to Mars via LEO

It isn't that much difference in terms of Delta V from going from LEO - EML-2 than for  LEO-MTO ( Mars Transfer Orbit.)  It's about 1 kilometer /sec difference in velocity.

Both ways require pretty much the same maneuvers from where they are to where they are going.  There may be an advantage for EML-2 in that it may be easier to -obtain water and oxygen from the moon- than from LEO.  From there, EML-2 can be used as a staging point to go to Mars.

LEO can be used for staging for Mars as well, if that is desired.  However, when staging at LEO, any additional supplies have to come out of a deeper gravity well.  That means bigger and more expensive rocket, or more rocket launches, or both.

The mass fraction for the moon is about 1/2.  The mass fraction from Earth is maybe 2% to get to lunar orbit from LEO, and a lot less than that to go all the way to Mars.  You can put the more cargo at EML-2 than in LLO ( lower lunar orbit).  However, the downside is the need for infrastructure on the moon in order to obtain the water, oxygen, and perhaps other supplies.

Putting it another way, there is no disadvantage in terms of Delta-V worth mentioning to stage from EML-2.

You have the additional opportunity to supply your ship for the long voyage to Mars without having to launch it all from Earth at one time.

Musk may be planning to use the Martian atmosphere for aerodynamic braking.  This will require less fuel provided that the heat shield isn't too heavy.

Numbers obtained here.


Ted Cruz is in the U.S. Senate Illegally?

Ted Cruz is in the U.S. Senate Illegally?



comment:



It's politics.  The GOP let itself be intimidated into not challenging Obama, but you cannot assume the same for the Democrats.



I may have to change my opinion on how this affects Cruz.  Trump may have sunk Cruz's campaign for sure with this one.




A big rocket to Mars? Wargaming it.

It is quite unlikely that a big enough rocket can be built and launched that could transport 100 people at a time to the planet Mars.  The payload's mass proposed for such a mission is 100 tons, soft-landed on the surface of the planet.

Let's examine this a little closer, shall we?

A hundred tons is 200,000 pounds.

If each person is 150 lbs, then 100 people would have the mass of 15,000 pounds.  That means 7.5% of the payload is the passengers.

As a point in comparison, the lunar lander in the Apollo Era had the mass of 5000 pounds (sans fuel) in the ascent stage.  The useful "payload" fraction actually landed was about 5 percent of the 100,000 pounds in lunar orbit.  If you exclude the ascent stage fuel, it doubles to 10,000 pounds, or 10 percent. Those numbers in the previous paragraph are roughly comparable to these lunar ascent module's numbers from the Apollo Era.

But the useful payload fraction that could be landed on the Moon was only 5000 pounds out of the 100,000 pounds in lunar orbit.  Let's say that a one way trip to the moon that only included the lunar lander would take that 35000 pounds and land softly on the moon.  Of that, about half is usable on the surface, or about 17,500 pounds.

What about the command module with the return capsule?  Since no return is available, that brings the useful payload to 50,000 pounds, at the most.  If it is one way, he doesn't need the return capsule and he doesn't need the ascent stage's fuel.  He doesn't need the trans-Earth injection burn, so he doesn't need that fuel.  All the fuel and hardware he needs is for landing.  He still needs an lunar orbital burn.   Maybe he gets 50,000 pounds on the moon, but I don't know for sure.   I suspect is it no more than that and is significantly less than that.   Half of the mass would be fuel to land the other half.  This is all guesswork.  I don't have the rocket equations handy on this netbook.  My recollection is that it takes about half of the mass to get to orbit from the moon.

So, the range of useful payload to the moon with a Saturn V class rocket is between 17,500 and 50,000 pounds.

This gives an idea of what Musk is suggesting that he can do.  He wants to land 200,000 pounds on Mars with a rocket about the size of the Saturn V.  Nope.  A much bigger rocket is needed, or multiple rocket launches.  His proposition would land 4 times as much mass on Mars as the Saturn V could put on the moon (at best).  He needs a lot more mass for the longer mission and the burn that would take him to Mars.  No rocket can do that now, nor is there likely to be one anytime soon.

Since the useful payload fractions being proposed are about equivalent, assuming that Musk can even achieve what he wants with mass delivered on Mars, what does that do for the Mars settlers?  Not much.  The lunar module had only the thinnest of walls- like aluminum foil.  It had only a few days of life support.  To survive the trip to Mars and to continue surviving, the colonists would need months of supplies.  No way they could generate as much shelter, food, and water that they would need in order to survive.

There is one possibility, and that is to do the life support functions in the vehicle itself.  It means growing food and replenishing supplies onboard instead of bringing them along and having to launch and warehouse them for the long flight.

How can you get 100 people to Mars?  Looking at the numbers in the first paragraphs, you may need up to 2500 pounds per person in the Apollo configuration just to get them there.  If you bump that up to 50,000 pounds landed, that allows up to 25000 pounds per person.  You could land maybe 8 people on Mars using those numbers and assuming you could do it all with comparable numbers to a moon landing using a Saturn V class rocket.

A big rocket isn't likely to do a hundred passengers unless there is much more tech invented.

Possibilities of that?  You would need the hardware to recycle all materials.  Nothing could be wasted.  Plasma waste converters could take the waste and make useful products from them again.  This includes ALL waste.  Number two and number one would have to be reused.  This introduces a significant YUCK factor.

You need to practice these skills somewhere in order to make them reliable.  You should practice them on the ground and in space in order to make them reliable in space.  You will need to be able to service them with the materials at hand.  Nothing could be shipped to you in two years at best.  You need to have the people trained so they could do this.  No Maytag repairmen up there.

An IronMan suit?  How would you manage that?  It could be powered like the Curiosity rover on Mars with a nuclear thermal device.  But the rover weighs about a ton.  If you have 25 thousand pounds per person, a ton isn't much.  The 2.5 kwh per day would have to power the recycling machine that processes the waste back into oxygen, water, and food.  Is that possible?  Probably nobody knows that yet.

It would make a lot more sense to take this step by step.  The Apollo program did it that way.  It succeeded.  Even then, they lost astronauts.  Space is dangerous and difficult.  Not kid stuff.

With respect to kids, you may want to speed up the colonization with biology instead.  How?  Manufacture an artificial womb and grow your own colonists!  Biological science can create artificial organs already, or will soon be able to do that.  Make the babies on Mars in artificial wombs.  Then you need only a few adults around to watch over them as they grow up.


Best of Misc category

Each post gets organized by category.  Google will tell you how many pageviews that post gets, so it is possible to create a "best of" category of that category.  This is what I have been doing in order to promote the blog a bit.  Those who are new can read these posts to see what's most popular here.  Not much is, but this concentrates it so that a person may read through a lot of material that others found interesting.

Maybe this will help with traffic.  Maybe it won't make much of a difference.  But I resolve to do this for all categories, and this will take some time.  There are a total of almost 10k posts on this blog, which goes back more than five years.  There's a lot of work to do on this.  It may take me weeks, or even months to compile these lists.

The current topic will be "misc".  That also seems to be the most popular of the topics here.  What that says, I don't know.  You decide.

Here's the latest list:

The things you hear
Ode on a Grecian Urn
Closing the carbon loop   [ Note:  I'd like to revisit this on a later post ]
US GDP per capita in gold per oz from 2011 to 1960  [ Here's another one to revisit]
Water Electrolysis & Renewable Energy Systems [ idea: can you electrolyze ammonium carbonate]
Don’t aspire to achieve success, be envious of it
Interesting Post


Note:  This list could have been longer, but I cut it down in order to save time.


Wednesday, January 6, 2016

My impression is that Cruz has gotten the better of Trump

Questioning the Donald on immigration and his response to Trump's talk about a nonexistent Canadian passport gives Cruz a 2-0 advantage ( if you want to score it that way) .

The Donald had better bring his "A" game, or Iowa could become the beginning of the end.

Still, I am wary of Cruz.  If Trump can fall, so can Cruz.  Then it is back to the GOPe.

Not called the Stupid Party for nothing, it seems.

Update:

This analysis contradicts what I wrote.  Cruz lost the Canadian ploy.


Some people just drink the Kool Aid

Conservatism, what does it mean?  Does it mean anything when it is the usual practice for the Congresscritters to vote conservative;  but when it matters, they don't?

People are against Trump because they fear that he isn't a conservative.  The claim is that he is just mouthing words that he believes we want to hear.

It could be true, but it could also be not true.  Just the same for the other guys that they believe in because they drank the Kool Aid.  So, what if it matters that Trump isn't a true conservative?  I don't think there are any anyway.

Instead, I look at what is possible, and then look at what the candidate says.  Then I ask myself if he can or will do what he says that he will do.  It is entirely possible for Trump to cut taxes and keep services as good or better than what they are currently.  What would be "liberal" about that?  Why would it not be conservative when Reagan didn't even do that, nor has the GOP controlled Congress done anything like that.  Therefore, it is possible for him to fulfill that promise.  The other half of the question is "Why would he not"?  He will because he is not obligated to donors to give them what they want because they helped him get elected.  He can do it on his own.  Therefore, there's no obligations that would prevent him from executing his proposals.  The only thing stopping him would be political opposition, maybe some from these so-called conservatives who are supposedly for controlling the growth of government.  If the so-called conservatives want this kind of outcome, then why oppose him?

There are those who may accuse me of drinking the Trump flavor of Kool Aid.  I think not because I am well aware that Trump could betray.  But isn't that what they all do?  I think Trump would be motivated to do a good job because he wants to be remembered that way.  Why would he want to be remembered for destroying the country?  Or do they believe that Trump will destroy the party?  Trump couldn't do that.  If he betrays, it may even strengthen the party.  They will finally do something about their own weakness that would allow a demonstrated phony to take over their party.  But he hasn't demonstrated any such thing yet.  Give him a chance, I say.

Basically those who are against Trump want his supporters to give up on their own judgment.  If Trump's supporters are anything like me, they are sick and tired of the failure, and the excuses that go with them.  All we get is excuses from them, including both so-called conservatives and "Rinos" alike.  Time to suck it up, and get it done.  No more excuses.


Can they really be this stupid?

Flashing red lights!  Flashing red lights!  This one just in.  Attention!  Attention!

As you may know, there has been something of a kerfuffle over the "occupation" of an abandoned federal building out in Oregon.

Now to show these guys who is boss, they are going to lock them in!  Brilliant maneuver.  Absolutely brilliant./sarc off

They are going to attempt to kill these people just because they can.  Wow! That will show everybody just who's the boss here, won't it?

Perfect.  The Feds have overplayed their hand they way they always do.  Hopefully, the people will get the point, and throw these bums out in November.  (Crossing my fingers on that one.)

Look, my understanding is that they are "occupying" an abandoned outpost.  Maybe it isn't really abandoned, but NOBODY appears to have been there.   Apparently, NOBODY goes to the place frequently.  Now to use deadly force in such a situation appears completely uncalled for and excessive.  If people do wind up dead, then how are we to take this?

I notice that Rush didn't have anything on this story.  The left wants blood, but why?  What's the point here?

They seem out of control, to me.  "Less is more" here ( meaning to resolve this situation), but we are likely, if reports are to believed, to witness something else quite different.

Update:

After reading through several links, I think that the local officials have a good feel for the situation.  The Federal Government is what I'm worried about.

If anything positive has come from this so far, it does appear that the "terrorists" have achieved something that indicates that the political left is out of control.  They seem "trigger happy", ready to use force at the slightest provocation.  They seemed to have run the ranchers off some land that they wanted to keep.  One way to run them off is to put them in jail, like the Hammonds.

The Hammonds going to jail is the reason given for the occupation.

Besides that, it appears that the back story indicates that a real miscarriage of justice has taken place.  Actually, the locals ( not a part of the militants ) were trying for clemency for the Hammonds.  It looks like the Federals overstepped their authority, so this could be a good place to roll that back a bit.  Interesting to see how Obama handles this.

If the media is any guide, the administration may not handle it well at all.

Update:

Patterico has a complete account of the story.   If you read that, you are up to speed.

What bothers me is that a jury actually convicted these two men of a trumped up charge.  That the government could get a conviction for this is a bit troubling.  If a jury would convict them of a Mickey Mouse infraction like this, we could have a problem here with a significant portion of the population.


A cause for truth

If this blog has been anything, anything at all, it is about truth.  Not to claim that I am totally right about everything, mind you.  It is also about humility- "the truth is a slippery thing".  Someone who says that their version of truth is the absolute truth may be telling you a big story.  My story is humble, I hope.  Sure, it is easy to say that whatever you say is absolute truth, but is it really?  It is a version, your version, and it is subject to bias.

Some may confuse what I have written here as just plain old post-modernism.  If it is, then I don't understand post-modernism.  My understanding of post-modernism is that those who subscribe to this believe that there really isn't any absolute truth at all.  If I am correct in my understanding, then this blog is definitely not into that.  Instead, quite the opposite.  All I'm saying is that knowing the truth is not as easy as saying that you are in complete possession of it.  To say that you are in complete possession of the truth is quite easy, but to be in actual possession of it may be impossible.  Nevertheless, I think that one should seek it.

That said, let's move on to the point.  The point is that people really aren't into the truth anyway. or so it seems.  Perhaps that is too harsh?  Well, I look around and I see so much that looks false to me.  Yes, and I can detect falseness in myself.  The difference is that I don't want to be false, and most people, I suspect, couldn't care less about it as a matter of moral necessity.  An example?  How does Hillary Clinton lead in the polls for the nomination of her party to be POTUS?   Didn't her husband run on the premise that "character didn't matter"?  Since the majority agreed twice that it didn't, then evidently it doesn't.

There was a paragraph here about the Ten Commandments.  But I don't know them, and to write about them subjects me to being called a hypocrite.  I thought that one of the commandments was not to lie.  But it is a bit different than that--- "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor."  Does that mean that merely lying may not be a technical violation of the commandment?  If so, then I was wrong about it being one of the commandments.  This interpretation there may not be correct, though.  Let's just say that this isn't preaching.  It is more like persuasion.  Truth telling should be a habit.  Truth detection should be a habit.  Truth should be a way of life.

Wouldn't things be a whole lot better if you could trust people?  The less trust there is the less civilized a society can be.   A cause for truth amongst the people in a society will establish more trust than if people lied to each other all the time, wouldn't you think?  But, it seems as though we are headed in the wrong direction, towards less truth and less trust.

Which brings me back to this blog.  I wanted to get this blog established with an audience, but for some reason, it has failed to get much of one.  So, one of the things I do is to try using the social media as a way of improving the pageviews.  But that may be even more false.   As I have written above, it is so easy to be false to each other.  Especially when you hide behind some facade of some kind.  Social media may be a facade that we show each other, not necessarily "the real thing".

Is there any solution, then?

The social media may be a good place to set up a cause, which I would dub as the cause for truth.  You can set up this cause, but will people follow it?  Oh yeah, they may pay lip service to it.  But will they make it a part of their lives?

Our future may depend upon it.

Or maybe my future.  After all, that's what I care about most.  Just like everybody else.  That admission may be what can be called an Inconvenient Truth.  Admitting something like that isn't what I like to do.  It is embarrassing.  That's how someone can get started with the lies.   The lies make things go smoother except when there's just too darn many of them.


Ooops! A mishap on the way to the resolutions event

I've been trying real hard to keep my New Year's resolutions, but a bump just been encountered on the road.

The Boots and Oil Blog has its own Facebook page, and now I've got my own Facebook page, but that seems to have gone away.  Something happened on the way towards updating the old Boots and Oil Facebook page.  I tried to link the two up, Facebook just erased the other, or it went into the ether somewhere.  Ooops!

What I wanted is to have the Facebook page link to my blog so that anybody who is a Facebook type can see what I been doing.  Facebook doesn't want to play that game, I suppose.

I don't know if I can recover from this mishap now, since I don't have the time this morning.


obligatory; 1.6.16; Cruz v Trump

Cruz has criticized Trump for the first time, if I am not mistaken.  This should start getting interesting as we close in on Iowa.  Cruz went after Trump on immigration, which is actually one of Trump's issues.  If he can steal it from Trump, it is bad news for The Donald.

Thought I would point this out as it is a significant development.


Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Mars Colonial Transport? Get real

I know that what Elon Musk did was quite impressive, but to transport a 100 people at a time to Mars is an improbable goal.

Simply to land 100 tons on Mars isn't enough.  You have to keep the people alive on the way and after arrival.  You'd better have a system for that.

He wants to land 100 tons on Mars.  Amongst that 100 tons will have to be people themselves, plus all their supplies and life support systems.  Everything.

Even if you achieve that improbable feat, still a lot of the mass has to be fuel.  Just to get to Earth orbit consumes a tremendous amount of fuel.  To put it briefly, Musk has to assemble an "ark" in space, supply it, and fuel it.  What he sends won't be what arrives there.  Most of what he sends will be fuel.

It took about half of the mass that starts from lunar orbit to reach the surface in a soft landing.  Mars has a deeper gravity well, although it has an atmosphere that can be used for braking.  How much he will have to use for a landing is hard for me to say.  Delta V for a Mars mission is considerably more than a lunar mission and for a much longer duration.

It may be possible to do that much, but not all in one launch like Apollo.  Very unlikely.


Bernie Sanders Economic Speech

Transcript at Market Watch

comment:

It is a compelling speech, I must admit.

Can a Socialist win the Presidency?  Or will that party affiliation doom his chances?

Not saying that I'm a potential voter for this guy, but he would be a better candidate than Hillary.  Almost anybody would be better than Hillary.

The criticism that can be waged here is that Obama has presided over a lot of this.  The GOP nominee can hang Obama all over the Democrat nominee, regardless of who it is.

Populism may be on the rise.  Trump is said to be Populist.  If Sanders wins, there could be two of them.


Experimenting with phone and tablet

In order to add content.  I came up with this video.

The significance is that I used a phone that has no access to web, used bluetooth to transfer to this device so I could post it on youtube.

Update:

The video is about how I had to interrupt my driving in order to take care of "my business".  I think it messed up my morning.  Now, something has messed up my evening as well.

Funny thing.  Something seems to have changed.  No more surge zones.  No more messaging.  Something is up.




With nearly 10k posts, there's plenty of reading material here

Helping you get started, try these:

Some additional best of posts

These are the cream of the crop in order to cut down on the length of the list ( and save time).

Norovirus & Ebola Zaire: same transmission vector (vanity w/CDC links)
Elon Musk: Artificial intelligence may be "more dangerous than nukes"
US Navy 'game-changer': converting seawater into fuel
Parting Ways With the American People | Online Library of Law and Liberty
McCain says Obama’s comments on the Zimmerman trial are “very impressive”
NYT: U.S. Adds Only 88,000 Jobs
The Determinators Movie
Is the USA in a pre-revolutionary mode?


Up to 230 posts for "Best of Miscellaneous".  That's getting to be a bit much.  May have to cut it down a bit.


Obligatory, 1.5.16; Promoting blog

Once again, it is a part of my New Year's resolutions.  Another one is to take care of my health better.  I need to make a doctor's appointment soon.  Also, I am using my tablet to do this post.  Why?  I sit down too much.  I figure standing or lying flat does more good than sitting down.  Typing this post standing up because I cannot do it lying down with this tablet.  Doesn't sound like much of a health regime, eh?  Every little thing helps.

I do not have time to continue with a best of list.  Will do that during mid day break.

Got an idea to print up some business cards.  Could hand them to my riders.  That may help.  Not a new idea, though.  Had this idea before, but did not actually hand out any.  What is different this time?  Better have a good answer before spending money.

Sticking with it is also one of my resolutions.  So far so good.


Monday, January 4, 2016

News roundup; 1.4.16

Here's a few stories that I thought were interesting for some reason or other:


Incidentally, with reference to that last AGW news item, there was another mention at another article that discusses how the climate models were wrong in predicting temperatures.  Once again, models are not supposed to be used that way.  If they are used incorrectly like this, then it isn't science anymore.  Models are to be used in order to better gather data, not to generate predictions.


If the models don't predict the temperatures correctly, then they should seek to explain temperature fluxes another way, the retry their model.  One thing the models might have detected would be the placement of weather stations.  Since they are too close to "heat islands", the data has been skewed.  If their models are based upon faulty data like that, then no wonder the models don't predict the temperatures correctly.  But that's what models are for, if they were truly being used for science.

Man with bionic penis set to "take her for a spin"

Or something like that.  You have to wonder about this.  The man lost his "schlong" when he was but a boy.  Now, he has gotten a new one, so to speak, and is eager to try her or "it" out.  "Her" meaning a sex worker, who has agreed to "work pro bono" so to speak.

I mean, how does he know when he has, er, gotten off?  If it works really well, can I get one?  Might be better than a blue pill.


Obligatory, 1.4.16; Continuing resolutions

One reason I don't generally make New Year's resolutions is that I don't keep them.  Why bother, then?

It's important to have goals and to continually try to reach them.  No, not try.  Actually executing the goal and achieving it.

It tells a bit on me to admit that I don't try hard enough as I should.  Well, the resolutions I've made, I've almost forgotten already.  Two of them, health and promoting this blog, have been remembered at least this long.  It's a start.

As for promoting this blog, I've managed to get through a few categories so far in doing a Best of compilation, so here's a few more.  This may take awhile...


Winning Through Intimidation
Mike Reed, aka Bunker Mulligan
Brian Wang
Cops: Shoecam Used To Film Store "Upskirts"
Vodka from vending machine in Ukraine
Two bald eagles in air battle crash-land at Duluth airport
Elephant Plays Harmonica
Giant Harpy Eagle grabs the Sloth (video)

Note:  Almost all of these are going into the Best of Miscellaneous category.  These are new entries, by the way.  One thing I am learning, or even more than one thing, there's not enough categories.


Sunday, January 3, 2016

Who cares what the left says?

All they do is lie anyway.

Why would their leftist Prez wants to send in the military?  Or the militarized police?  Do they want a violent incident?  Towards what end if they do?

Why don't they just cut the crap?  Because too many people believe their crap.

If they call them "terrorists" and fail to deal with them, then what does that say about them?  They can't deal effectively with neither Islamic terrorism nor what they call "terrorism" at home.

They are playing politics with it thinking that it will help them at the ballot box.

Update:

The full story about what's happening, and it doesn't favor the government.






Obligatory, 1.3.16; Busy today

Not enough time to do much blogging.  Now that everything is out of the way, just want to share a thought.

The thought is that it is possible to use the moon as a launching point for missions to Mars or Venus.  The reason is that it takes much less energy to get to escape velocity.  Not only that, with the long periods of sunshine, it could be possible to build up a lot of current for something like a mass driver.  There may be a possibility for an innovative way to launch under such conditions.

If not, perhaps a mass driver could be used.  The point is if you could either launch without using fuel, or get through the shallow gravity well, it may make more sense to launch from the moon than from earth.