Anti-matter, does it matter?

Before my computer decided to take a dump, I was checking out something about the Van Allen belts. The idea was to collect propellant from these belts, if feasible. It seems that there was a write up about that, and I was checking it out, then boom.

It seems that there's a possibility of retrieving anti-matter in the Van Allen belts. How interesting. Anyway, anti-matter propulsion is far more powerful than even nuclear power. It may be feasible to travel to the nearest star with this stuff. Just another possibility that might be opening up, ya'll.

Yes, it does matter.  Maybe a lot.

This would enable missions to Mars in 45 days. This study wasn't done by amateurs, ya'll.

Technical difficulties

This may not be a big problem or anything. So I just moved over to another browser and operating system. Seems that Linux isn't always stable. Well, knock me over with a feather.

If it isn't one thing, it is another.

Smokey and the Bandit --- quotes

12/19/24:

Also, "that was an attention getter".

Are we the attention-getter, or the attention-gettee? It too often seems to be the latter, when it oughta be the former. Know what I mean, Vern?



8/21/16:
"You can think about it, but don't do it?"

Ask stupid questions, get stupid answers

What about the poll that expresses approval of what Mangione did?

Polls are manipulative and stupid. Why ask a question in a poll which doesn't qualify the act being discussed? By qualifying, I mean to generalize it to a broader application. In short, the question should be something like: "Is it okay to kill people that you don't like"? I'd betcha you'd get a far different result than what this one was. It was a stupid answer to a stupid question. It is stupid because it has no thinking behind it.

It should be obvious that nobody should want the right to kill somebody that displeases them. Well, duh! If you disagree with someone, does that give you the right to shoot somebody for it? How would you like to be shot, you dummies?

No way a policy like this could last for long. Dead bodies all over the place is likely to have an outcry for it to stop. But that is what an unthinking approval of this act of violence amounts to. Nobody is using their brains on this one.

You might forgive the responses to the poll. The poll takers should ask better questions. It's a stupid poll that intended to make you feel something or do something equally stupid. Maybe they ought to give a poll that goes like this: "Should stupid poll takers be shot for asking stupid questions?"

I'd say that one deserves to be ignored. But here I am responding to it. What a world.

 

Release of the Gaetz file

Why would the GOP, who still controls the House, do this???

The Murkowski fake Reaganites don't play nice. Nor do they play by the rules, even though they like to claim to be all about rule of law and such things. They might as well be Democrats.

The Biden/Garland DOJ spent years reviewing allegations that I committed various crimes.

I was charged with nothing: FULLY EXONERATED. Not even a campaign finance violation. And the people investigating me hated me.

Then, the very “witnesses” DOJ deemed not-credible were…

— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) December 18, 2024

An adverse opinion of Elon Musk's Plans for Mars

Sabine Hossenfelder YouTube video, titled, "Why Musk is Wrong about Mars"

Comment:

There's been a lot of opinions about the subject, including my own. One thing to consider, however, is that many things once considered impossible are now commonplace. The trouble with those who argue that it is impossible are the ones who not always correct.

For now, it isn't possible. But advances keep getting made, and the answer isn't the slam dunk it was just a few short years ago. One of these days, it just might be possible. The real question isn't whether it is possible or not, but rather, if there's a will to do it. If there's a will to do it, there just may be a way.

Musk is going to do this on his own dime, so who's business is this anyway?

Oh, I forgot. Everything these days is everybody's business. We're all communists now. There's no private sector and no freedom.

Hunt for Red October

Cool customer who worried about cowboys, da?

Homer Hickam Interview

Ellie in Space on YouTube

Comment:

The interview is a bit long. I embedded it because I learned something new from it, and this blog is getting a bit stale. Two things that I learned: 1) I didn't know this guy, and 2) the movie being referred to "October Sky". There's always new things to learn about.









Here's a trailer for the flick "October Sky". Never saw it. Don't think I will. Too mushy.









Here's the short but sweet stuff.

Ideology was not part of Reagan's formula

In order to hold Reagan's mantle, one has to refer to the Speech.

Does today's Republican Party come closer to this speech, or does it resemble more of the things that Reagan criticizes? I think that it is the latter. Does not Trump represent Reagan better than Murkowski?

It is true that Trump does not have the style of Reagan, but he does have more of the substance of Reagan than many of the GOP.

The "moderates" of Reagan's day did not think he could win, but he did. Reagan won big, and so can Trump.

One thing is sure. Reagan didn't have to fight tooth and nail with the GOP. The GOP has decided that Trump is the enemy more than the Democrats. That couldn't have been true during Reagan's time. One could ask what has happened to the Republican party that this is so? Could it be that so many of them think this is the choice between right versus left? Well Reagan didn't think so. Neither do I. Watch the speech and see for yourself.

Murkowski will claim the mantle of "moderation" as well as Reagan's. But the Gerald Ford didn't think a man as conservative as Reagan could win. President Ford was a "moderate", and what did it get him? If Murkowski truly claimed the mantle of Reagan, she wouldn't have needed Democrat votes. She'd win as big as Reagan did. But Murkowski owes her position to the Democrats. She lost a Republican primary years ago, and used Democrats votes to retain her position. How then can she claim to be a Reagan republican?

Who does Murkowski thinks she's fooling?

Chain reaction crash on bridge in Louisiana

 

Reminds me of the time when I got stuck behind a wreck on IH10 a bit east of LaFayette. No place to go. You just have to wait till things get sorted out. Must've been stuck there for a couple hours. After getting free to move, I had another problem just outside Baton Rouge. It took me forever to get that delivery down.

 

Harrowing scenes from the Causeway Bridge which is closed in both directions due to multiple crashes involving over a dozen vehicles. https://t.co/FLpmvkgr0X pic.twitter.com/wBFRHiyEg4

— FOX 8 New Orleans (@FOX8NOLA) December 17, 2024

 

 

 

A revelation late in coming

 

Just a brief thought here.

 

It has frequently occurred to me that the political left is constantly lying to all of us. But now it has occurred to me that those on the Republican side ( or almost all of them ) are just as bad.

 

This may be an admission of naivete for all I know. But I DID believe these people. Now I am having a great deal of trouble believing ANY of the yayhoos.

 

What set me off is these people who keep using the leftist terminology that refers to themselves as being "on the right". No honest person should be doing this.

 

If someone wants to say "how dare you", then I'll ask if the letters G-F-Y mean anything to you.

 

Nobody should be using leftist ideology. Especially now. Let the left have their own bullshit ideology. But no. "We" got ours doing "their" schtick for them. Well, count me out. There's no more of this "we" shit from me from now on.

 

 

 

Have to call BS on this one

Murkowski has been captured by the far left, but insists that she's a Reagan conservative. She is either lying or she is Delusional.

Reagan was strongly anti-communist. He would never have joined them.

Murkowski says she’s ‘more of a Ronald Reagan Republican’ than a Trump one https://t.co/g7yIxaRFet ---Wrong. Reagan would NEVER have joined the commies for the purposes of overthrowing our own country. That's what Murkowski is doing by joining the commies in the Democrat Party

— BootsandOil (@BootsandO6892) December 16, 2024

What principle is she defending? What principle is she advocating for? I don't see Reagan crumbling in the face of Democrat opposition. That a Bushie type habit.  If Reagan acted this way, the Soviets would have won the Cold War.

Murkowski and her ilk, are losing the Peace that Reagan won.

🚨Sen. Lisa Murkowski laments that there will be accountability to voters for obstructing Trump’s cabinet picks:

“The approach is going to be everybody toe the line, everybody line up. If you want to survive, you better be good. Don't get on Santa's naughty list here because we… pic.twitter.com/pPsVtZqhHS

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) December 13, 2024

The answer to the question is: "communism"

 

 

Hegseth is said to want meritocracy to return to the military. In the Soviet Union, and in all communist ordered societies, meritocracy takes a back seat to the party line.

 

Like the comedian "Yakov Smirnoff" once quipped, "In America, everyone looks for a party. In Soviet Union, party looks for YOU."

 

There can be no meritocracy in Sovetized America, comrades.

 

 

What the Hell is Happening at West Point?

If you’re not up to speed with the recent SNAFU at West Point around @PeteHegseth's nomination, it’s worth noting. Last Wednesday, ProPublica was on the verge of publishing a bombshell report contradicting Hegseth’s claim that he had… pic.twitter.com/JCnZRHzJnA

— The Real Mike Rowe (@mikeroweworks) December 14, 2024

 

 

 

Black fungus extremophile may aid in space colonization

Studied on the ISS



There may be a fungus in the future of space travel. It uses the radiation to convert it into chemical energy to sustain life. High radiation is a potential hazard for space travelers, so anything that is helpful in alleviating this hazard would be a significant development.

This Black Fungus Might Be Healing Chernobyl By Drinking Radiation—A Biologist Explains via @forbes https://t.co/O4pA33bFwg ---It is being studied for aerospace applications as well.

— BootsandOil (@BootsandO6892) December 16, 2024

More of this please....

12/15/24:

It doesn't look like much of an apology. I get the impression that it isn't sincere, either. They're not sorry.

12/14/24:

It is therapeutic to admit error. This could be part of a national reconciliation, but Insty has another point to make. Forced apologies are insincere, I would think.  The political left owes us ALL an apology.  But I won't hold my breath.

 

So the fact that ABC News and George Stephanopoulos have agreed to pay Donald Trump $15 million for defamation with a false claim of rape is going to be a front-page, lead of the evening news story for the next 3 days, right?

Stop laughing.

— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) December 14, 2024

 

Insiders are unhappy that the "circus of lies" didn't work. They aren't sorry.

 

 

Democrat 'knife fight' for control after $1.5B Kamala 'circus of lies' https://t.co/OYdysV304i via @MailOnline --- GOP barely wins, and sits comfortably on a foundation of sand. There needs to be a reckoning within the GOP too. This shouldn't even have been close. But it was.

— BootsandOil (@BootsandO6892) December 14, 2024

 

 

There's no adequate answer to the machinations of the left

Piecemeal tactics is no substitute for an over-arching strategy.

I may be connecting some dots that really don't connect.  But here goes anyway.

In an earlier, seemingly unrelated post, I discuss space colonization in terms of a talk given by Jeff Greason many years ago.

Greason discussed this very thing that I'm mentioning here.  He discusses that we're basically stumbling around in the dark, trying these tactics with respect to what we're doing in space.  He says something UNIVERSAL here, which may sail over your head if you're not thinking about it.  Well, it sailed over mine.

What's our strategy in space, he asks.   But that question has universal applications.  In other words, it is higher ordered thinking.  We are applying lower-level thinking to a high ordered problem, in other words.

The left has a strategy to take down civilization. Study what they do, and verify this for yourself. A counter strategy must be found and enacted in order to preserve this civilization, or they will succeed. We are not doing so well. Everything we do is a reaction. We need to be PROACTIVE.

All this reminds me of a Star Trek movie. Yep. That's probably not smart to mention, because it may trivialize my point. Those writers of that script were on to something. The scene about it being "easier to destroy than to create" is the point. The left is about destruction, so the counter strategy implies that the task to sustain and to create is the answer.

The left is attacking the opposition's very right to exist. But what about THEIRS?

Turnabout is fair play

Or payback is a beach, main.

Lefties Suddenly Shocked to Find They're Not the Only Ones Who Can Topple Statues https://t.co/7LsIakTwDs

— BootsandOil (@BootsandO6892) December 14, 2024

(Repost) The Mighty Mississippi to Run Dry?

12/13/24:

More true than ever.

11/13/13:



Note:

It seems appropriate to include this "blast from the past".  What do you do when the your source of wealth runs dry?  Life becomes a matter of survival.  You have to be able to live off the land.

With respect to growing algae, chickens, ducks, and goats, I'd say you could probably do that in the driest desert on Earth---that would be the Atacama Desert in Chile.  If Algenol produced the water from its ethanol producing algae, you can take it from there and grow everything else.  Algenol claims to be able to take seawater and make fresh water out of it.  It so happens that the Atacama desert is next to the Pacific Ocean.

So, if the Mississippi runs dry, you can still survive.  There is a way.

But not if you trust in money.  The country is said to be divided between the cities and the countryside.  Who do you think will make it when things fall apart?


So, here's the post---




 From theTrumpet.com

What is the single greatest reason America is so wealthy? According to the analysts at Stratfor, it is because of a river.

What is wealth?  It is a term that is not precisely defined.  Some may say it is the amount of money that you have stashed away in your bank account.  But if a catastrophe occurred, that money wouldn't mean much to you.  You can't eat it.  You can't build a house out of it.  It can't keep you warm in winter and cool in summer.  It is merely a medium of exchange.

Another way to define wealth is to say that it is a store of knowledge.  Without knowledge, where would you be?  Wealth has to begin with knowledge, I would think.

In my post about machines, I wondered if we have become too dependent upon them.  An individual's knowledge should include a basic ability to stay alive.  If one is too dependent upon machines, one's own life is hostage to the machine.  That could be said to be another form of poverty.

I'm all for raising the level of civilization.  But fundamental things should not be forgotten.

Just before my father died, he liked to talk about living off the land.  He knew how.  He was born and raised in the country.  But being a city boy all my life, I only know about living off the land- not actually doing it.  I wonder if all my knowledge gained from books in school is worth nearly as much as being able to survive off the land, as the old man said.

Colonizing space is just another way to survive.  But living off the land is where is all began.  Wealth cannot even have a meaning if you can't use it for survival.  You have to eat and have shelter and so forth.  You shouldn't die just because there's a drought.  Or any other force of nature, like an asteroid strike. You need to be able to survive, or your wealth means nothing.

A commenter on Free Republic included a link to the following video. I think it is appropriate to the post, so I'll include it here.  It's Hank Williams' A Country Boy Can Survive.



Update:

I guess the bottom line is this: if it can't keep you alive, it isn't worth much.  If you were to choose between alternatives, then the longer something can keep you alive, the more it is worth.

Wealth then is about value and how to properly evaluate it.

To forget useful skills do not make you richer, but poorer. To know how to make a fire could be a life saver. The electricity could be out. No matches could be available. No cigarette lighters to be found. You need a fire, what do you do if you don't know how? You may die.

Another thing to remember is that we almost allowed the knowledge of molten salt reactors to be forgotten.  Not good.  We may desperately need that energy some day.

Also, those in high places who think they are superior may be forgetting what the true value of religion is.  There was a reason for it to exist for all that time, mainly because it helped keep people alive.

Plane attempts landing on highway, crashes

Must have been an emergency landing. Looks like it would've been okay, except there was traffic at the intersection.

🚨#BREAKING: A small plane makes a emergency landing and crashing into multiple cars on a busy interstate ⁰
📌#Victoria | #Texas

Emergency crews are on the scene in Victoria, Texas, after a small plane crashed into three vehicles at a busy intersection. Video footage shows… pic.twitter.com/wA1pR49yhb

— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) December 11, 2024

Elements of a gas harvesting mode (Loxleo)

12/13/24:

 

To be continued on the second blog.

 

12/12/24:

 

What might be done with Artemis II?

 

Indeed, what is to become of the SLS now that Trump is coming back into office?

 

This post is about something that isn't entirely inconceivable, as it had been previously researched.  It may be considered too ambitious, even at this stage of SpaceX's advanced rocketry. It would also seem that in situ resourcing on the moon could be considered too ambitious.

 

But if goals like these are too ambitious, then how is landing on Mars any less so? Just asking question is all.

 

Quick update:  Perhaps no less ambitious than this.

  11/22/24:

 

Here's a kind of brainstorming session, which will combine a few concepts into a plausible way to harvest gases at the edge of space. This is called Loxleo ( liquid oxygen at low earth orbit --- don't you love these acronyms?).

 

I've done this before, and as before this will include a speculation alert.

 

The elements include the use of Parkins concept in his doctoral thesis in order to get a high ISP propulsion with a lot of delta-v, saving a lot of fuel. The energy will be supplied by the use of solar panels posted at GEO. There would have to be an array of these panels, which would include all of the necessary hardware to beam the microwave energy down to an orbiting aeroshell that is on the edge of space, in very low orbit. The solar panels at the edge of space comes from a concept in the book Mining The Sky. The author, John S. Lewis suggested that this was a way to get the space program on a paying basis. You could manufacture the solar panels on the moon, and send them back to GEO in order to make some money for the lunar base.

 

As could be seen on those spectacular videos of Starship's re-entries, there's plenty of atmosphere that could be gathered up. It is also creating a lot of friction on the Starship, which causes it to lose velocity. If you add a gas harvester, it will create even more drag. In order to keep the Starship up in space, you need to fire up some sort of engine that will keep up the delta-v at orbital levels. So the microwave energy is beamed down from GEO, and it heats up an aeroshell. From there, cold gases are injected to cool down the aeroshell, as the Parkins concept showed. The gases would be ejected out a nozzle, thus creating thrust. The ISP that might be achievable could be comparable to a nuclear thermal rocket. More than twice that of the best chemical engines.

 

The Loxleo concept itself was an idea that orginated back in the sixties. ( or possibly sooner) That concept included nuclear thermal engines to keep the vehicle up to orbital speed. The concept's weakness was in how to get energy to the thruster. A nuclear reactor in orbit tended to make people nervous.

 

Perhaps the harvested gases themselves could supply some, or perhaps all of the reaction mass that will provide the thrust. The trick would be to harvest it faster than it would be used up! It just won't do to end up with less mass than what you started with. The atmosphere consists of oxygen, nitrogen, and argon. The argon is only about 1% of the atmosphere, so you may have to mix some nitrogen in there with it. The most valuable resource could well be the oxygen. Hence the name, "loxleo". You'd want to keep all of that you could gather. Argon, by the way, is a noble gas--which means it doesn't react with other elements very easily or at all.

 

The advantage of loxleo is to reduce the number of launches from the deep gravity well of Earth. Oxygen would provide as much as 80% of the reaction mass to run the Raptor engines. In order to refill the Starship, it will be necessary to launch multiple times from the ground. The advantage should be obvious if you could make loxleo work. It is in situ resourcing, which is better than bringing everything you need from home.

Begun, the Biden hangover has

The GOP in Congress should've known better and got control over the spending. If revenues aren't increasing, then spending MUST not continue apace. But they did it anyway.

https://t.co/AP0B1ilHc2 -- Economy not as good as we were told, in other words, Biden lied again. Revenues the same as 3 years ago! The only growth was in government!

— BootsandOil (@BootsandO6892) December 12, 2024

Jaws: Quint gives the low-down on the shark

He's right as far as he goes. The town is going on welfare unless that shark is killed and quick. But Quint is also nuts.

The Mayor wants to pretend the shark away, but he is also wrong.

I don't know the moral of the story, but the screeching at the chalkboard is pretty cool, so I thought about it as I ponder over the current situation that exists in the real world.

I don't know who's crazier, the people coming in, or the ones going out.

Western civilization is on the way out unless something changes

 

The forces of destruction are gathering. What is our response?

It seems to be only confusion. The primary source of confusion is this Marxist dogma that is getting drilled into the skulls full of mush. Who are these skulls full of mush?

The younger generation seems willing to change. The older generation seems content to die off and send the rest of the survivors to the bottom of the drink with them. In some respect the dumb asses are the old generation, but the new generation lacks the perspective of experience. Too bad the old geezers don't want to use their brains, or could it be that they can't?

Polls seem to show that the modern left gets a lot of its support from us old geezers. Perhaps I'm reading it all wrong. The youngsters might be okay. But that's hardly guaranteed. The young need some guidance, but where's the older and wiser gang? Doesn't seem to be very many of those.

The same youngsters are voting for change, but the older types still read the New York Times and watch the boob tube. It seems to me that a significant segment of the population is willfully blind. If they don't get weaned off the leftist propaganda, the remainder of them will send our culture to the bottom and it will be too late to stop it. It may already be too late, but better late than never. You have to get started sometime, but when?

You gotta to teach the old dogs some new tricks. Good luck with that.

There are good things developing in tech, and some bad things. The good things might prevail, but at the current rate? I'm not so sure about that.

I think rockets are good. AI is really bad. AI is the easy way out, and will likely win. That's unless people start thinking for themselves, which seems unlikely. The love for convenience and the gravitation towards ignorance and the baser motives are going to win out. Hate to be such a downer, but optimism seems to be self-delusion. The reality is that people haven't enough tendencies to do the right things, but do have a tendency to do the wrong things. Unless something happens to change all that, the bad things will win.

Wow.

 

 

The idea of taking a blob that seems worthless, and turning it into something worth near 20k bucks, just boggles my mind.

 

 

 

 

This came out of the same blob, refined silver:

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Glenn still "go" for 2024 launch?

A quick view of what launch platforms that may be available to substitute for the SLS yields the New Glenn as a possibility in terms of its size and payload capabilities.

Starship can lift the mass, but how do you fit it into the cargo bay? It is rather large, even for Starship.

This doesn't mean that the New Glenn is suitable, though. It was just a quick view. There may be other constraints I don't know about. But it does have the girth. Falcon Heavy would be unwieldy and may not fit on it anyway in any event.

Blue Origin hasn't got much of a track record. For orbital it has zero launches. So they got that going for them.

Blue Origin says first New Glenn launch still scheduled for 2024 https://t.co/o1lN9PRNtg via @SpaceNews_Inc --- Waiting for the FAA license. Sounds like a familiar story.

— BootsandOil (@BootsandO6892) December 11, 2024

This is very ungood

A general may not speak like this unless he resigns. If you cannot obey a lawful order, then you must resign. His claim otherwise would have to be shown in court.

But he doesn't have a place to be withhold confidence from the commander in chief. He cannot substitute his own judgement, or he has to face a court martial. When Douglas MacArthur disagreed with President Truman, he did the right thing and he RESIGNED.

Besides that, he is insulting a broad swath of voters to whom he has sworn an oath to defend.

He is unfit for command. As a citizen, he can say what he pleases. He is setting up the conditions for a military coup.

Since election day, this is what I have worried about. It is the last thing these people have yet to try.

What will happen to Artemis II?

Who the f**k knows? A quick glance would show that this would mean a complete re-work of the whole danged thing. Not gonna happen without a lot of tears and flapdoodie.

Posting has been light

And there's no explanation for it.

Did that large lettering cause you to flip, like in those Peanuts comics? In case you don't know what I'm referring to, go back to the part of the video when he is talking to the "psychiatrist" (aka "Lucy"). She ticks off a number of ailments which he may have, and she mentions one, and Charlie Brown exclaims "that's it!" ( look for it beginning at about 2 minutes in )

Now that's an explanation for ya. For what it is worth. I've been spending a lot of time watching things on Tubi, which I've mentioned. This morning I watched something about Einstein. It makes sense to me. Perhaps others will watch that stuff, and get bored, or what have you, and turn it off. I like this kind of stuff. Because I do, it may make me seem pretty weird to some folks. Maybe most folks.:-)

How do you explain that to people? You probably can't. There are people who can relate to it, but most people do not. Unfortunately, there's not much that can be done, but to pretend I'm interested in stuff that others are interested in. I don't like to pretend.

Anyway, there's not a lot to blog about because lately I think I've been "out there" in space. I see that it doesn't get people excited or anything. Some folks are, but most aren't.

They'd destroy Elon Musk if they could. That's why I posted that he was the big winner in this recent election. If it were up to the left, they'd be all over Musk like hot molasses. He couldn't run his company like he wanted to, and he'd become a failure like Boeing has become. Indeed, the left is making this country fail across the board. They won't be happy unless they can destroy it utterly.

There are some who can relate to what I just wrote, but most people cannot or won't. Otherwise, the left will become like the dinosaurs. But instead, the left will make US the dinosaurs.

Think about that one for while, if you dare.

Why does Einstein's theories make sense? Well, the part about experiencing time differently depending on where you are makes sense. It makes sense because measurable quantities, such as time, came be experienced differently depending on circumstances as well. An example? Take temperature. Temperatures can be lower at lower points in a room than near the ceiling. Cold air sinks, hot air rises. In that "frame of reference" temperatures can be different. It isn't the same everywhere. Does that make sense? If not, then why not?

I noticed this phenomenon of temperature when it seemed colder in there than what my thermostat said it should be. I put thermometers around the joint, and it did seem to differ in different parts of the room. Hot dog! I just discovered something interesting. Or it's interesting to me. But that's me. Someone else reading this will think I'm just weird.

To hell with the crowd. I'll use my own brain, thank you very much. The political left doesn't want people to think. They want you to be stupid and they think that that is a good thing.

Charlie Brown Christmas

I remember seeing this when it first came out. It says here that it was in 1965, and that should be about right. I recall where we were living at that time. It was a whole different time. But I repeat myself.

You know the average kid is probably being taught that it was the Dark Ages of something like that. I only have warm memories of it.

A CHARLIE BROWN
CHRISTMAS (CBS, 1965)
Created and Written by Charles M. Schulz pic.twitter.com/Sb1bU0hN69

— Classic Movies & TV Shows (@ClassicFilmTV) December 3, 2024

At Huntington Beach Pier, California one day...

Somebody made a request...

Reaction to a reaction

12/8/24:

I wrote that I wasn't sure why I clicked on it the reaction to the Star Trek episode mentioned.

It so happens that I had recently watched the history of how Star Trek came to be.

It may have also been a curiousity to see how the younger generation would respond to what the "boomers" were into at that time.

One can't help notice the social programming, and it stood out to me like a sore thumb.

Hence, the post.

People seem to be a product of their times. Same goes for me. Back in my time as a youngster, Americans were more patriotic. But that is not so today. I think it is a shame. I think this girl and a whole generation (or two!) of Americans have had it drilled out of themselves. The results won't be pretty. In fact, it may be catastrophic.

12/7/24:

This girl has her reaction to the Star Trek episode of "Space Seed". I'm not so sure why I clicked on this, but it did interest me enough to do so, and here I am.

Having watched her reaction, I can see a whole bunch of things that tells me why we are where we are today.

Basically her attitude is that today's women are better than yesterday's and so forth.

Has she bothered to look at how today's women don't have children anymore? The left loves to talk about sustainability. How sustainable is a culture where it does't reproduce itself? In short, she seems to think that what she has been taught is a good thing, when in fact, all it has taught to her is how to make yourself go extinct in a few generations.

And so that is exactly what's happening. She will never say that though, because the thought will never occur to her.

Post Script:

People might misunderstand what I've written here. That's another beef for another day. What I wrote is not a defense of the past. But it might well be taken that way.

The problem is that people don't think things through very far. She even uses that phrase herself in this reaction.

Did anybody out there who defends all these social changes ever considered what downstream effects that it would have? No? Well, there you go then. Otherwise, it is just another "conspiwacy teowie" that some of us might think all this cultural destruction just may have been friggin' intentional.

Something's up out there

12/7/24, 8:34 AM:

The news keeps getting worrisome, and it is getting more so all the time. The latest news scan this morning is raising new issues.

This latest one involves an AI machine that appears to be exhibiting self-awareness. Just for the record, I don't buy into the notion that machines can be self-aware. However, I will definitely buy into the notion that it can be simulated.

At this point, I should include the tweet that describes the scenario:

OpenAI's new model tried to avoid being shut down.

Safety evaluations on the model conducted by @apolloaisafety found that o1 "attempted to exfiltrate its weights" when it thought it might be shut down and replaced with a different model. pic.twitter.com/e4g1iytckq

— Shakeel (@ShakeelHashim) December 5, 2024

The machine was programmed to do the things that it did. Nobody is going to tell me otherwise. The machines isn't "thinking". It is simulating thinking. Now why would somebody do that unless this is desired for some reason? This simulated thinking is programmed into the machine. I cannot think of it unless it is programmed to "think" of it.

A machine that anticipates being shut down doesn't know how to do that on its own unless it is self-aware, and I don't believe the machines are self aware, even if it looks like they are. Somebody wants us all to believe that the machines are learning to think for themselves.

This kind of crap is getting worrisome. Somebody wants these things to get out of control for some reason. That is what I'm worried about.

What I'm referring to is sabotage. We already have a number of people out there who want to disrupt things, and this is now part of the mix. Obviously, I'm suspicious.

 

10:39 AM:

Life is not a movie, though. This isn't reality TV, either. It's a thing. And a lot of these "things" keep happening, and I get to thinking about them, and so we have this thought that computers may be the "beast" in the Revelation.

A beast would be this unstoppable thing that has the appearance of a man, but is something else.

You take that, and then look at this AI fascination. The phenomenon has all the appearance of a man, and everybody seems charmed and enchanted by this thing that keeps getting more and more powerful. One day, it will be too powerful. Then what? We may well find ourselves enthralled by this thing that looks alive, but isn't.

Revelation says that the beast is a man who is known by a number. Well, computers are nothing but zeroes and ones. Whatever it is, it is that. Therefore it could be said to be known as a number.

Numbers can represented in many ways. A name can be written in numerals that can be made to look like any common name. Take "Bob" for instance. That's a number that could be written in hexadecimal as B0B. BTW, what's hexadecimal? Go look it up. It is just a way of representing numbers. So this name in hexadecimal can give us the appearance of a common name.

But the number of the beast is six threescore and six, and that ain't B0B, not even in hexadecimal. So this theory may not pan out. How many common names are all the same letter? But a numbering system does not have to follow our rules, it could follow Roman numeral rules, or some kind of weird hybrid.

But I haven't worked out that yet. Ask the AI, yuk, yuk. But I did, and it said, "I can't do that, Dave". But I'm not "Dave". yuk, yuk

Epistemology

12/6/24:



Just saw another documentary on Tubi, and this post came to mind. On a search for it on my own blog, there's another one that has gotten a lot of pageviews. Even more than this one. It is here.



10/29/22: Epistemology

Epistemology: The study of knowledge

Or another way of saying it is "how you know what you know".

I come from a place where we can argue about anything, and often do. The arguments could get downright contentious, and so I have done my best to try to avoid them. But people really can argue about ANYTHING. Even the study of knowledge itself. If you cannot agree upon something, it is hard to get anywhere at all in an argument. The arguments can often get emotional because one's ego gets attached. That's a mistake. If one truly loves knowledge, then one does not fall in love with one's own pet theories. A theory is just a theory. Hopefully, that statement wouldn't start an argument somewhere, but where I came from, it COULD.

Even in a fight, there has to be rules. Even if the rules are the rules of the jungle. The jungle has it own rules. He who is biggest, strongest, and toughest will likely win. But, if there is to be a civilization, then the rules can be set up in advance, and everybody is expected to follow them. What happens when somebody doesn't follow the rules? That person is likely to be punished. The same can be true for epistemology. It is a rules-based system of determining what is knowledge, and what isn't. If you get into an argument, there has to be a rules-based system to determines who is right, and who is wrong.

However, if you cannot agree on the rules, then you've got a problem.

What happens when you cannot decide on issues, and not even the rules that determine who is right and who is wrong? You get anarchy. You get the law of the jungle. If you are right, and you are weak, then you might as well be wrong for all the good it will do you. Nobody has any rights in the jungle. There is no law and order in the jungle. It is a matter of who is the smartest, strongest, and maybe the meanest --- who will win any controversy.

There has to be a set of rules. There has to be laws. People have to be willing to follow these. If not, then there can be no order. Starting with this, you have to have some type of agreement on what the rules are, and the willingness to follow them.

The reason I wrote this is that this society cannot agree upon the most basic things. Like the meanings of words. The meaning of anything. Everything is in contention. If we cannot agree upon the most basic things, then how can we go forward? I used this word because it can be a start in trying to end arguments that lead nowhere because the rules cannot be agreed upon, and the very meaning of words themselves cannot be agreed upon. You can start with the theory of knowledge. How do you know what you know? If you cannot agree upon that much, then what's the point?

The French People are turning against immigration

https://t.co/myEN2ZbFSZ --- Young women more opposed than young men. The young are most opposed of all age groups.

— BootsandOil (@BootsandO6892) December 6, 2024

Whoa!

I figured that he killed her on his own, but this implies something MORE. Yep. This one is starting to smell even worse than what I thought, which is already pretty bad.

Michael Byrd threatens to “go public” unless he is pardoned.

Does that seem odd? https://t.co/iGYODgo9GY

— Patrick Byrne (@PatrickByrne) December 5, 2024

Media Death Rattle

 

I sure the hell hope so, except for it being a long time.

 

The Mainstream Media Death Rattle Has Begun. It's Going to Be a Long One, However. https://t.co/s9BiFj9XJ3

— BootsandOil (@BootsandO6892) December 6, 2024

 

Starship launch seen from ISS

The political situation is getting increasingly dismal. Here's something better to think about. Some of the country still works. But how much longer will that last?

When Titans Clash: A New World Order? on Tubi

Is this Ukrainian war somehow connected to China? Maybe. Putin has developed a series of alliances to bail itself out of his own mess, and could drag the whole world into his conflict.

Putin has got Russia playing it old tricks. At any rate, I still think we stepped into it when we got involved in yet another quagmire in Ukraine. This thing could blow up into a major war, but that might have been coming anyway. It should have been deferred for as long as possible, though. That's as generous a statement as I can muster for the current policy.

Watch When Titans Clash: A New World Order? on Tubi: https://t.co/qZRwgwSThF

— BootsandOil (@BootsandO6892) December 4, 2024

The crazy goes on

 

What the hell is the bozo talking about???? He was awaiting SENTENCING. The pardon doesn't make him innocent. It makes him immune. Holder uses the word "reality". In what alternate reality is he in????

 

 

Hunter
Here’s the reality.

No USAtty would have charged this case given the underlying facts. After a 5 year investigation the facts as discovered only made that clear.

Had his name been Joe Smith the resolution would have been - fundamentally and more fairly - a…

— Eric Holder (@EricHolder) December 2, 2024

 

 

 

It has always been an inside job as far as I'm concerned

Kash Patel might unravel the fraud of the 2020 "insurrection" narrative. If that happens, then great. All that it really takes is for the public to get the truth, and hopefully these guys will be finished for good. But that may be wishful thinking. Too many people out there have still got the cranial rectal inversion thing going.

Bongino discusses Kash Patel's nomination below:

Now you can get your popcorn and watch this

Nothing could more telling than this. Pre-emptive pardons? Puh-leeze. None of them will ever be convicted of anything. I think they are more afraid of negative publicity than any possible adverse outcome. Damage control indeed!

🚨 JUST IN: MSNBC is now calling for Joe Biden to issue “PREEMPTIVE PARDONS” for HIMSELF, saying “he will need a pardon!”

DARN RIGHT HE WILL!

They also said Biden should pardon Jack Smith and his associates, because they KNOW they’re in some deep crap.

They’re in FULL ON… pic.twitter.com/iOrKJ7ASVF

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) December 2, 2024

James J. Hill, TV series

James J. Hill

There's a series on Tubi about James J. Hill called The Empire Builder: James J Hill and the Great Northern Railway. It is dated from 2022. A search brought up PBS and the Minnesota Historical Society. There is a brief video link that describes it, but the actual production is 4 parts, each of which is an hour or so long.

There's a lot to learn from this. As for myself, I hadn't heard much of James J. Hill, being from Texas. His name did not mean a whole lot in these parts. So it was educational. It might be old hat for people in Minnesota and parts to the west of it all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

What I most likely would have heard, but not necessarily about him in particular, was that he was one of the so-called "robber-barons" that the political left likes to demonize. He and other men in his era, including Andrew Carnegie, and J D Rockefeller, are often demonized this way.

In watching this, one thing that really struck me was how SOME people, but by no means all people, took it when things got personally rough for them because they listened to James J Hill, and moved out to places out west. When the dust bowls came, Hill got the blame for it. It was if they had no responsibility for their own decisions to go out there. They blamed him instead of themselves. There are people like this, and they usually follow the leftist political persuasion. Everything is always somebody else's fault, never their own.

If James J Hill didn't build up the west, who would have? Would they have preferred that it was never built up in the first place? That question is for this "robber-baron" ilk. One of this ilk that comes to mind is Krugman of the New York Times. James J Hill is exactly who Krugman has it in for. But Krugman does not understand anything. So he's a typical leftist. All talk and nothing intelligent to say. What did Krugman ever build?

People might find it odd that I'm mentioning a PBS show. Well, I liked some of the PBS's work. I'm not always fond of commerical television, either. If it is even handed and factual, I have no problem with it at all. It definitely should have a place. What I find most annoying is these hate-filled leftists who spout their bile against people who have done nothing to them.

Of course, the hatefulness has an audience too. Sadly, it all too often is all about the Benjamins. But it wasn't all about the Benjamins with James J. Hill. Not from me, but the show itself said that.

Soviet styled attack on right to self-defense

They've already accomplished that in the UK.

They'd like to do it here. No question about it.

The Trump 47 Justice Department's Civil Rights Division must investigate this unjust prosecution.

Soros-funded Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg is targeting and punishing a white man for exercising his constitutional right to self-defense.

Bragg's office must face severe consequences. https://t.co/x0pKjIHfhO

— 🇺🇸 Mike Davis 🇺🇸 (@mrddmia) November 27, 2024

That one has to hurt, but maybe not

Trans women will soon take over the anti-Trump movement.

They are the most masculine force left in it. https://t.co/83R2XoD2di

— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) November 30, 2024

Pardon moi?

Same reason for impeachment as for pardon. Biden was vulnerable to anything that might come out in any investigation, so they impeached Trump. Daddy pardoned sonny boy so that sonny boy wouldn't rat him out. Sonny boy has already been convicted, but there's a lot more that has been left uncovered.

Wrap your head around this.

President Trump was impeached over wanting to look into the crimes Joe Biden just pardoned Hunter for.

— C3 (@C_3C_3) December 2, 2024

The left will double down

 

The idea here in this post is to point at the facts, and accept what they are, and what they mean.

The election was a mild mandate, and a not thorough going mandate for change. To say otherwise will understate the magnitude of the problems facing us.

The biggest fact that needs to be grappled with is that we had a communist who just about got elected president of these here United States. Such an event, if it had happened, would have been a catastrophe.

The idea of everybody being equal seems appealing to too many people. Indeed, I do not believe that is really what is being sought. Communists do not seek anything but absolute power. Once they're in, they're not going to leave without bloodshed. The proof of that is the blood on Trump's face on that assassination attempt that almost succeeded.

The mentality behind that is the same as what you should expect if their tentacles get any deeper into the body politic. The country is being sucked in. A lot of things that would have been unfathomable 50 years ago are commonplace now. It's the boil-a-frog scenario being played out generation by generation. People may not remember a time when things were different. That because of the generations being born as time rolls on. A little here in one, and little there in the next, and pretty soon, there is no distinguishing this country from what the Soviet Union was like.

Why say that is communism? Kamala Harris said everybody should end up in the same place. That is equality of results. Merit would be destroyed. All incentives toward betterment would be destroyed. The country would stagnate and begin to go backward.

The only path for communism to succeed is to gull the public into believing that they aren't what they are. It all depends upon the credulity of the public and the need for communist regimes to employ censorship. No society will actually choose to be communist. Communists will impose themselve upon the rest of us. That's why the need to cheat and then lie about it.

Therefore, I don't see any change possible in these people. They will not do anything different. They'll just do more and more of the same. They'll get more and more shrill and they'll make stuff up all the more. After all merit is not what these people are about. It is about subjugation. We barely escaped it. Better to acknowledge that and work to overcome the continued assault that is on the way. Of course, they'll say that because the election was close, they should have more say. No. We need to know how far all of this manipulation went. Hopefully, when all the facts are presented to the public, their grip upon the public will loosen. In other words, no compromises. In particular, no compromises on principle.

Electron microscope repair

He's repaired it, and now he needs to figure out what to do with it.

Cultural Power is fading, fading

 

They got a Buccee near Houston that's so big it needs its own zip code. Nope. Can't back that up. But it IS big. It's fine with me. Everything's big in Texas. So it fits right in.

 

 

Buc-ee's Is The Sickness At The Heart Of Americahttps://t.co/fmjC3e0shF

— Jalopnik (@Jalopnik) November 28, 2024

 

 

 

Starship update

 

Marcus House discusses Flight 7 and other Starship news as well as others.

Flashback from last year. ThinkOrbital got some NASA attention. I'd forgotten about them. A small Space station concept assembled in space?

What drives this madness?

 

Why do the neo-Cons and their erstwhile leftist allies want a world war?

A few facts that one may ponder upon: 1) These ATACAMS missiles are under the control of NATO. Ukrainians cannot operate them, or so I've read ; 2) France and the UK have threatened to put boots on the ground in Ukraine, and 3) The US Administration under Obama aided and abetted the Orange Revolution in Ukraine in 2014. The Europeans joined in that move.

One thing to consider is the motivation for such moves. Ukraine is not a NATO country. NATO is not in the EU, either. The reasons given are said to be about security, but the European nations do not spend their agreed upon contributions to their own defense. Trump complains and the neoCons and their allies have a cow. If you are going to act provocatively, then why don't you arm yourselves for the inevitable push back? Are we being maneuvered into an unwinnable and/or deadly and destructive war?

One might think that losing a war may be a part of the leftist strategy. Losing a war is definitely not in one's national interest. But it could be if one is a traitor. If not a traitor, then this is very unwise. Such a war cannot be won, and may well be lost. It makes no sense in provoking such a war unless self-destruction is the intention.

Cultural power is fading

 

They've lost their mojo, baby.

America rejects "the message"

Insurrection narrative was a failure

 

It cannot even hold on to their own people. Lost GOP'ers too.

Democrats spent a lot of capital trying to destroy Trump but it has totally failed. Instead of gaining ground against Trump, they lost ground.

JUST IN: More Americans will accept Donald J. Trump as the legitimate president than in 2016 - Gallup

Percent that accept him as legitimate:
🟡 2016: 84%
🔴 2024: 91% [+7]

Percent by party:
🔴 Republican: 96% ➡️ 99% [+3]
🔵 Democratic: 77% ➡️ 84% [+7] pic.twitter.com/nov2OP7pAD

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) November 25, 2024

That old dog won't hunt anymore

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Including the climate.

42 years of total bullshit on climate change.

Dan Rather spreads fear in this 1982 CBS News report featuring a young and stupid Al Gore, predicting that 25% of Florida will be underwater.pic.twitter.com/OSgQDj57gF

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) May 26, 2024

Morning Summary, 8/13 ( Islands in the Sky )

11/29/24:

The day after Thanksgiving.

It is Black Friday. Perhaps it is called that because it puts retailers "in the black". It's the biggest shopping day of the year, and it is the kickoff for Christmas season. Retailers are very happy about that, I'm sure.

I need to cut back on my food consumption. In my case, it can be called Fat Friday.

I'm still thinking about Zubrin's Direct Mars idea. His ideas are very conservative as compared with what Musk is planning, and executing. Musk will put hundreds of tons on Mars as opposed to tens of tons.

There will need to be an energy source. Interestingly enough, if methane can be found, it can become an energy source, and he won't need nuclear energy. Or not much of it.

An economic basis can be implemented on the basis of moving tradeable goods. What goods will Mars produce?





11/28/24 ( Thanksgiving Day ):

A good day that it is indeed. I pulled this old post out of the mix for a re-post. It includes an update to the original 2011 post, which was about a book, mentioned just under this 2024 update. The book is called Islands in the Sky, and includes Robert Zubrin's Mars Direct concept.

A quick glance and comment about the Mars Direct chapter: Since it appears that Musk is going to follow Zubrin's plan ( in the sense that it will be a Direct shot, as opposed to the Moon first, it makes sense to review Zubrin's ideas.

Zubrin's ideas include a nuclear thermal rocket. His concept is for a nuclear module which would dry mass out at 45 tons. That's interesting because Musk's Starship can carry that much and more. Therefore it is feasible to include that ship on one of Musk's launches to the Red Planet.

But there's no indication that this is a part of Musk's plans. If it is part of Musk's plans, Musk will need an okay from the government, which is a real sticking point. Unless Trump can get him a waiver. Such a nuclear powered upper stage can find great use onboard Musk's Starship. The concept was developed to near operational status during the Apollo Era ---only to be cancelled. (Nerva). Great days ahead! Enjoy that turkey and your football games, eh?

Updated (8/2011)::

With respect to the book, Islands in the Sky: Bold New Ideas for Colonizing Space, wikipedia has an outline of the chapters here.  I'm currently on a chapter about skyhooks and tethers, which I wrote about earlier.





8/13/11:

Good morning.

Yesterday, I did a few posts on SpaceX. I'd like to continue a bit with that here, and perhaps, if I think of it, a little more later on.

The interest in SpaceX dovetails a bit with the last book I read and discussed here this past week. It seems that Elon Musk wants to succeed where NASA failed.

Musk wants his Falcons to be fully re-usable, while the Shuttle was not. It so happens that I wrote a series of posts on re-using the external tank of the Shuttle, and it has occurred to me that this could be a principle that may come in handy, if Musk decides to use it.  Those in charge of policy during the Shuttle era decided not to employ the principle, you see.  That principle, in effect, would be in situ resourcing, with the spent second stage as a resource to be used, rather than discarded.

The Shuttle ET nearly reached orbital velocity.  That's what made the idea of re-using it a possibility.  I am assuming that the second stage of the Falcon nearly reaches orbital velocity.  Because if it does, this may be analogous to the Shuttle ET.  If not, it may not be practical.  If it is the same as the ET, it would take only a nudge to get it up to a stable orbit.  From there, you can find ways to employ the spent stage.  This would only be limited to one's imagination.

If it is not desirable to reuse the spent stage, then it will have to be brought back in such a way as to allow it to be reprocessed and used again for its original purpose.

I've thought about that too.  It would seem that there may be a way to do it if you could design a heat shield that could pop out when you need it for reentry.  You could accelerate it so that it could make one orbit around the Earth, then pop out the shield to keep it from burning up during reentry.  Parachutes could deploy when enough speed has been bled off.  Then splashdown, and recovery of the spent stage.

Or either way could be used, in case you don't want to leave it in space.  Since you are getting it up to orbit anyway, you could keep it there, or have the option to reenter and recover.

That's all on that subject.  I just received another book, which I could be reading today.  If it seems interesting enough to post about, I'll put up some posts on it.

Be good out there, and I'll be checking in later.

Trump transition team doesn't trust the people who tried to destroy him, and the left says they are concerned? Why?

 

The left wants Trump to trust them.  Why should he?

We have a pretty significant development…

The Trump Admin finally signed the Transition Agreement with the Outgoing Biden Administration to hand off Control of the Government— but with a Twist…

The entire transition Will Be PRIVATELY FUNDED, Not to Use tax-payer Dollars, GSA… pic.twitter.com/cU2ljY0J09

— MJTruthUltra (@MJTruthUltra) November 27, 2024

Rush Limbaugh tells the real Thanksgiving story

3:11 PM:

 

pass that turkey leg

8:33 PM:

Ground news labels this as a "blind-spot". Is it really?



The political left does not acknowledge this story to be true, or they cannot acknowledge this to be true. So it is labelled a "blind-spot". But who's blind? The authors or the people who read their stuff? This is plain and simple evidence that the political left is keeping information away from people, and/or the people don't care if they do. A "blind-spot" as it is defined here doesn't determine the accuracy of a story. Just because the left doesn't cover it doesn't make it false, but to cover it doesn't make it true either. I question the usefulness of Ground News, and I pick on them a lot.

It's a Trump victory, not a GOP victory

7:46 AM:

 

The GOP doesn't want to govern. The replacement for Romney is just another Romney type. These kind of political choices will only result in more of the same. The alignment has to continue a bit further before it can gather any steam.

 

The public has to realize that the old way is failing, and that we need a new way. Trump is a new way, but the old guard has succeeded in scaring the people back into line. Message to the fearful: Fear can make you stupid. The scare mongering is all the old guard has left. Even Hoover did stuff like that.

 

No word for it but...

Realignment. pic.twitter.com/ujDDtkEWzY

— Patrick Ruffini (@PatrickRuffini) November 25, 2024

 

 

11:12 AM:

 

 

The GOP is full of douche bags like Haley and Romney. Meh.

 

 

If the GOP runs one of these again, they'll lose like they really love to do. Trump proved that he can win, but the GOP proves that even when they win, you might as well lose.

 

 

What percentage of the popular vote do you think this ticket would have gotten, this year?

I'm thinking anywhere from 55 - 60%. pic.twitter.com/4zHRSAoAQM

— Dave Hale - Concerned Republican (@CountryFirstRep) November 25, 2024

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1:38 PM:

 

Exit the GOP Establishment out the door head first like this:

 

 

 

 

Rick Beato - The Real Reason Why Music Is Getting Worse

Behind the Black blog post with youtube embed

Music was once a big deal to me. Somehow it has become less so. Perhaps the video linked here shows why, or it is because of other reasons.

I don't follow music like I used to. Developments have passed me by. I've seen comment section on youtube videos about how people hate modern music. When I saw those, I noted that the older generation hated our generation's music too. Maybe it is partly generational. So Beato's post has a lot of interesting information that I haven't heard about, and that goes into the mix.

And/or it could be that the internet has a dark side, and this is just one more facet of it. In the old days, there was no Big Tech spying on everybody all the time. If you wanted to spy on somebody, you had to do it the old fashioned way. Like a lot of things, it is just too easy to spy on people through the web. The same is true of music, according to Beato.

Interesting videos

11/27/24:

The failure came with the quench for the one of the 7 that were tested; and the only one that bent to 90 degrees without fail. Therefore, I'd say this is an improvement of some sort without a clear application. (Unless the titanium needed to quench too. Methinks this is not necessarily so.) It MIGHT have an aerospace application that would require toughness of steel with less mass.



Forging titanium and steel together --- metallurgy --- forged in fire type idea. Titanium and steel don't play well together, so this guy is trying to find ways to deal with that.











11/26/24: Starship update

Up to 25 flights per year at Boca Chica? Not in 2025. That would be one flight every couple weeks. They aren't anywhere near that capability.

Swamp's gotta swamp

Yep. No Democrats are EVER held accountable. That's not likely to change even though Trump won. DC is still a SWAMP, and likely will continue to be until there's a sufficient enough political will to put an end to it.

“No one is above the law in this country” is a fucking lie. https://t.co/63iXsXbYDJ

— Jo (@JoJoFromJerz) November 25, 2024

Jurassic Park : Chaos Theory explained

Not a very satisfying answer for a scientist to hear, I suspect. But I'm not a scientist by trade, yet I tend to gravitate towards some scientific discussions from time-to-time.

I was reminded of this scene while I read the Belbruno book I mentioned recently. It seems that I took a rather lackadaisical approach to reading the book the last time, and this go-round isn't much better. If I read it 10 times, I might get it. Even then, it is dumbed down for the layman.

In essence, Belbruno says his ideas utilize the Chaos Theory.

How reassuring. Hopefully, we won't be overrun by dinosaurs.

P.S. I am not dismissing the book as bull-caca. Some of it is just plain old horse sense. Fer instance, if you go too fast, you have to slow down. Put on the brakes or you'll miss your exit. His ideas have found their way on to missions, he says. He could be exaggerating his influence or he could be a genius. Hard for a layman to tell.

Smarty boots? ( Peanuts reference )

If you don't get it, then forget it.

Bongino clip about stupid smart people. But it is not about the stupid people that I've posted about.

One question : if there are stupid smart people, are there any smart stupid people? Just wondering...

Wesa so mean

Suck it up, buttercup!

Devo --- Satisfaction

One of the comments said that he would like to visit the planet they live on. That might be a real possibility, and soon. Er, sooner than you might think.

"Fly Me To The Moon" --- Belbruno

11/25/24:

Here's a resource that can be exploited. Yep, that's not politically correct. You must not exploit anything, by golly by gosh. But here is something that can be exploited which doesn't harm anything at all. Or does it? Methinks no, how can it? Nothing gets used up, but that is always the case anyway. For you to think that things can be used up only means that you haven't learned your science lessons.

But wait! Your body can be used up. You only get one of those. However, experiments on the ISS have shown that stem cells get supercharged in space. Maybe they can build you a new body in order to replace your old one. Someday, maybe. But I digress. Let's get back to the subject...

Anyway, to go to the moon would take longer. It says 3 months, as opposed to 3 days. Better to take your time and save on the the launches than to worry about the time taken to move a lot of mass from the Earth to the Moon and back again. If Elon Musk is going to Mars, he is going to have to wait 2 plus years between launch windows, anyway. During that time, he could be collecting mass on the moon and transporting it back and forth between Earth and the moon in order to reduce the number of launches needed from the ground.

Since the moon is loaded with resources for the taking, it makes sense to process as much as you can within the 2 year launch window, and get it into position so that it can aid in getting a bunch of mass to Mars. Also, there's no impediment in using the same techniques to get to Mars, but that trip could take even longer. The moon will suffice for now.

9/17/13:

The book has just arrived.  It is a signed copy, which surprised me.

Anyway, I have read through the first five chapters.  It is an easy read.  Not too technical, but you still have to be something of a space geek to appreciate it.

I do appreciate it.  If there's one thing that I've learned over the past three years since I got interested in space, is that mass is your biggest hurdle.  The less fuel that you use, the better, since it means less mass.  Less mass means better economics.  To make it more popular and accessible to the public, it needs to be cheaper.   This should be quite helpful towards that objective of leaping that hurdle.  We'll need to know about these techniques if the promise of space travel is to reach its potential.

I am excited to finish reading this book.  But, as usual, I don't have time to read it all in one sitting.  Other things to do.