Weasel words,,,,,
Only the guilty flee when no one pursueth.
‘Threats’ of retribution are not pursuit,
And pardoning Miley, who is on record with statements of treason,,,, There should be a way around that pardon,,, Trump won’t do a damned thing about it though. He will want to ‘maintain the integrity of the office and respect the wishes of his predecessor,,,’
sigh,,,,
I guess we won’t be seeing Faucocinni hanging in hemp,,, (unless he gets caught in a back alley some late night. Many want that Mengele-wannabe done in.)
All I want is TRUTH. Truth in Media, Truth from those in power. We are not children needing to be protected from the real world.
more laters,,,, Single digit weather here, fit only for tuxedo wearing flightless water fowl and white bears. My kidz are all in hiding indoors, hating the merest touch of draft when I open the door to the outside. Getting wood into the stove consists of moving little furry bodies out of my way, as they are soaking up the warmth of the stove; dreaming of summer,,,,
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UPDATED: Just a little image of Elbee and Zoomers playin’ this morn so y’all can see how the rugrat is growin’.
My minds a-boggled
All the fun ‘youth kick’ going on last night, I dove back into other curiousities of my youth. Some of y’uns might be Heinlein Fans (and if you aren’t, WHY NOT?) and recall “The Rolling Stones”
Yah, NOT the band (though I still get my digs in with them blaring over the sound system.)
If not, the Stone family are Miners. Asteroid belt miners.
And I got to thinking, How feasible IS asteroid mining?
Not very in reality. The asteroid belt is Frellin’ HUGE,,, and in reality, pretty damned empty. The average distance between asteroids is 600000 miles. To put that into a comparison that makes some sense to us rock hounds (what I am going to term planet locked humans for now, IE All of us,,,,) there would be only TWO asteroids between mama Earth and Luna. Thats a rather large distance to be scooting between flying debris in search of bounty.
Advantages to space bound searchers,,,, zero G, NO drag, and a continuous thrust engine can move you large distances in short order. (Heinlein covers this frequently, and includes the math involved) BUT, when you are searching for a rock, that may only be a meter (or less) wide, in distances that size,,,, And your best friends are radar and spectrographs,,,
and that section of space (all space really) is pretty damned cold,,,,
NO, Not saying it ain’t doable,, but there are some hoops that need addressed before it would be economically feasible. Even so, a miner could lay claim to one minute of arc in the belt and still have a lifetimes worth of work ahead of him to root out his claim. Except the belt moves, alot, and not as uniformly as the planets. (though still in predictable fashion, for the most part. About like you can predict what a country might do, but look at any one individual, without background on them and you’re making wild guesses for prediction.)
BUT, the asteroids tend to be much more pure in content than what we find on earth.
…………………..
Some of the biggest problems mentioned above have nothing to do with the physics of the situation. Most have to do with our indoctrination via entertainments. Take our expectations of how war would take place in space. We have all these shows and movies showing dogfights like you would expect in air to air fights. Our imagination using something we have as fact, but not applicable to ‘out there’. That ain’t gonna happen when you can detect objects moving to you (in less than FTL speeds) from THOUSANDS of AU (astral units, roughly the distance of the earth from the sun, 47 million miles.) Then you have the totally primitive methods we use to apply thrust to our craft. I say primitive even though we are at the pinnicle of tech there, but it still takes MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF FUEL to move things; that is, if you want things to move quickly. Fuel takes up a lot of realestate in a craft. (Note,,, the Voyager craft had Ionic thrusters that delivered micro thrust, but continously, for long periods of time. Enough to acclerate them and guide them into slingshot paths with panets where they were able to get even MORE speed. It took years to get up to the speeds they are currently moving, and they have no way of stopping (and thats okay, since they never planned on stopping anywhere). That is the sort of thing we have on the table currently, along with the vacuum engines (rockets) we currently use for larger craft within earths orbit. Compressed gasses work for thrusters/attitude thrusters etc, but once used up; gone, worthless junk until a refill can be managed.)
My brain is a tickin’ with scenarios, ideas, and what not, and No, I ain’t a rocket scientist/engineer. But I am curious as all get out as to what plans are being laid in how to handle moving things around out there. And I know there are people that are digging into those very things, hoping for that chance one day to play amongst the stars.(the REAL stars)
AND NOW, I am going to turn my attention back to ‘here and now’ for a minute, using the opening of this post for ammo.
There has been some agenda pushing going on in the spheres. and I agree with large portions of it, but this one. I had a couple of issues with. I like Bill, have been a fan for years, but there was one point in particular that struck me as narrow minded as all get out.
All Federal Employment of non-STEM college graduates is forbidden in the first ten years after graduation. That to me spells a problem. The US is nearly dead last in STEM graduates these days. We pump out massive amounts of other degrees, but only a small percentage of STEM, AND, that doesn’t seem to be making corrections anytime soon, with our pre-college education system being zeroed in on Indoctrination, not EDUCATION. Many of our STEM oriented employees are H1B holders. Not all mind you, but a significantly noticable amount.
Maybe the current launches will inspire some kids to push harder at the ‘Hard maths’ and other sciences. One can only hope. There may be a generational lag, with a sudden burst of “new minds” in the next 10-20 years,,, but it won’t happen overnight, and the leftist mentality is going to take even longer to weed out of the Institutions of higher learning. (and I would bet good money, it never ever goes away entirely,,,)
And then again, there is the animosity I have for “Public Servants”,,,, The only people fit to serve are those that have no desire to serve, and those that desire to serve, should NEVER be allowed the chance. IMO,,,, To many instances of power hungry manipulators in our history, old and current. Too many instances of LIFELONG POLITICIANS, that are uber-rich and never, NEVER did a damned thing to improve the world beside spewing hot air and promising bullshit. (there are some exceptions, those that chose to serve to combat the current trend of career politicians, not for self serving interests,,, May this trend grow and ripen into something more akin to the “citizens” profile as described in Heinleins Starship Troopers. Earn it, not given cart blanche by virtue of birth.)
We are one weekend away from the Inaugeration,,, The Corpse in Cheif is leaving the offal office, and there are crews and crews in overdrive to prepare the residence for Trump, fam and Krew to take over come Monday.
How many crews are in overdrive to bury the dirt still in circulation from the last four years (eight in reality, since the first tour of Trump was such a frenzy of ‘fuck you’ by Obamas appointtees and the BLOB.)
We’ve a long way to go before we get off this rock, and even longer to go before we start migrating off as ‘Homesteaders’.
If you have young’uns,,, start trying to inspire them now, homeschool if you have the means, (make the means,, they are out there) and if you are a grandparent, take the time for the kids. Time was, the parents were the breadwinners, the grans were the teachers. Slow evolutions in change that way, but it carried culture much better than our current ‘latest trend’ way of the world; where you don’t know what to expect month to month, and tech drives us at such a pace, only the dedicated can stay on top of it all. (Don’t need to go all Amish on us, but do take that lifestyle as a model to build from,,,)
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So why all the excitement?
Its not for me, that’s for certain. Yes, I am excited as heck about the idea of HUMANS getting off this damned rock.
Why?
Because we have always migrated away from power mongers. The Expansion of this country is a great example of that. The more territories opened up, the more people left the hustle and bustle and faced the unknown “To live as they saw fit”
We need that as a species. So what if we screw up and the laws of Physics destroy us. Hopefully, we leave a message of what when and how, maybe even WHY, and the next guy on the trail will NOT screw up,,, We evolve,,,
I’m long enough in tooth, I can’t see me making the trek: but someone will, and for them, I am excited beyond words. I see a future again. Not my future, but our species future. And it isn’t trapped on this prison planet. We may (currently) be relegated to our solar system only, but give it time. Who knows, in a hundred years, (or less) someone is going to make that breakthrough of FTL, or figure out wormholes, or something,,, I don’t think it will happen while we are stuck in this gravity well. I think the solution is out there waiting for us to find it, but to find it, we MUST get off this rock, FIRST.
dreams create reality,,, reality inspires dreams, and then the real magic begins.
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I ain’t gonna lie,,,
THIS!!!
THISSSSS!!!!
Excites me SO MUCH MORE THAN THE DAMNED KABUKI THEATER IN DC.
Dood!!!
DOOOODDDDD!!! Two successful catches of the booster. watch the time frame,,, SEVEN MINUTES FROM LAUNCH TO CATCH, and the Starship was still accellerating and climbing when that happened. THINK ABOUT THAT,,,, Turn arounds in spaces of hours,,, HOURS!! not months and years, Even Better,,, a booster can carry far more than just a Starship: it could carry the means of other endeavors up to low orbit to be collected together in a more economical fashion ‘when all the peices are there’. This is a HUGE stepping stone to opening up our solar system
GOVERNMENT DID NOT DO THIS!!!!
Proof positive IMO that Government is NOT the answer and more likely an instigator of problems.
Now, I know that SpaceX is trying some new type of tile on Starship, so what happens on re-entry is any laymans guess, and even the Techs and Engineers are crossing fingers to some extent. So, there is still further to go before ALL of this becomes completely viable, but,,, That launch sequence is getting to the point where its going to be ‘just routine’, like a train leaving a station or a 747 making a milkrun to Europe,,,,
(and I know there are some that are still looking at those plumes from launch and saying “POLLUTIONS!!!” ,,,,
Give it a break guys,,,, Liquid Methane, and Liquid Oxygen. O2+CH4!!!! Water and carbon dioxide and lots of HEAT are your ‘exhaust’ components. Those plumes are vaporized water condensing into cloud/fog. You could breath in them (though it may, at first, have a higher CO2 content than your body would like. EVEN IF, the mix is off just a bit, running ‘lean’ so to speak, the CO (carbon monoxide) would burn off once it came into contact with the atmo. Or running rich, would make some interesting nitrogen compounds in the same way. (say, ammonia, that would decay rather quickly in atmo) seriously, this is BASIC CHEM 101, highschool level shit,(Correction,,, This should read ‘Rich’ in the first instance, lean in the second. Apologies,, my excitement made me dyslexic.)
AND IT WORKS. I even went back to look at some of the Shuttle launches,,, The launch plumes were much ‘dirtier’ and seemed not so focused as what we are seeing from SpaceX vehicles.(and they used solid propellant boosters along with LOX/??? rocket engines. The ‘dirt’ was from the solid boosters.)
Feelin’ a little giddy right now,,, Almost like when I was a wee-tike, running around on my bigwheel, imagining being an astronaut, during the Apollo missions. I used to look at the moon and wonder,,, That all came to an end when they stopped the Shuttle launches, effectively killing the wonder of my younger-self. Well, SpaceX just woke that little gremlin back up,,, I see a future in space,,, Maybe not for ME, but some HUMANS are going to be going places and seeing things we have only pictures of (and not very good ones at that)
(UPDATED: A Falcon 9 is launching TWO moon landers (unmanned 😦 ) as I was posting this.
sigh,,,,, To be 50 years younger right now, watching all this develop and DREAMING,,,, realities are made on dreams, and when the realities start creating dreams,,, WONDEROUS THINGS HAPPEN.
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UPDATE 2: Starship lost several minutes into flight; “unscheduled rapid dissassembly”,,, LOL Really nice way to say “she blew the F! up.” And I will betcha, they learn 10X more from this blow up and the next iteration will be a screamin’ success. I love reading the naysayers in the comments of the report vids,,,, My only thoughts when reading them are “He who dares,,,,” The naysayers would never dare,,,,
Indifference
So much going on,,, Fires destroying L.A. The incoming Administration getting its ‘leaders’ in place, more shenanigans from the current Admin,,,,
And I find I am not giving a rats ass. Not that I don’t care, I’m checking in trying to stay one step ahead of whatever is coming at us sideways.
And you know it is, whatever it may be,,, Black Swan event? Economic collapse (we are already in a reccession, even if the voices of the world try to say otherwise.) An Assassination? Who Frellin’ KNOWS,,, certainly not this one little fish in a great big sea,,, (or is that one small crayfish in the bottom of the cesspools???? There are days where that seems the more likely,,,)
I feel for those in California, that are finding out just what the hell they have been voting for the last few decades. And I can see parallels of Maui, North Carolina etc in the events happening there. And still, ‘no love’ from TPTB as they ship another sumpin’sumpin’ billy-yuns of dinero off to some other theater of pain,,,, Someone is gonna make bank on the destruction, IT WON’T BE the homeowners out there. Many are probably in need of selling off the property at pennies on the dollar of what it was worth before becoming an ashpit. Other sites have far more information about the debacle of Insurance retreats form a year or more back, along with other aspects that are going to create a perfect storm of horror for property owners out there.
And the destruction in NC and SETN are still ongoing. I think it will take a few more years before things there return to what I recall from just this past August… I could link to some of the feeds I get from that area, but its all private pages on Fakebuuk,,, You would need to subscribe to them and I know just how much my readers loooooooove Zuckers (sounds like ‘suckers!!!’) ‘Meta’ platform. Seems he also had a ‘coming to God’ moment recently,,, More like ‘saw the way the world was turning and decided to switch sides before the axes started falling’ moment.
We used to, in the Marines, call guys like that, ‘Buddies’.
Its not a good term, trust me. Buddies are the guys that will leave you hanging when y’all get caught red-handed, or in a pique of paranoia, rat ya out to the captain before hand. Not someone that ‘has your back’ in otherwords. (one of the reasons I like Farscape so much: they did a bang-up job showing the milquetoasts and ‘buddies’ that abound around those just trying to be left alone to get along in life.)
NO, right now, I have more on my plate ‘to get ahead’ to deal with. The last couple of months have put a dent in my progress,,,,,,,, even slid me back in more than a couple of ways, and I ain’t at all happy about it. I haven’t been venting about it too much since some of it was my own over-zealousness, (the three fingers pointing back at me thing.) I’ll get by, I always do, but its going to be a struggle, unless there is a major change in some things on my end. No need to go into that, I just have to hold my cards close, and be ready to cut or slash when the opening arrives. Burned bridges? Maybe,,, Don’t really want to, but there comes a time where that is the best road to take. Time will tell,,,
Am I selfish? No, but as I told Burnout a time or two: If you aren’t taking care of ‘#1’, #1 can’t take care of anyone else either,,,, Simple truth. I certainly can’t be helping those in other places rebuild if I can’t pay my own bills, right? (they are getting paid, but I don’t like the method I had to resort to this month to do so: felt far to close to how our Government pays its bills, by borrowing.)
And such is why I am indifferent to the goings on in the world. My focus is on getting #1 back on track, and until then, the rest can hang. I can’t fix it, Even on the best of days, and these ain’t the best of days.
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Tis winter,,,,,
SNOW: Check!
ROUGH DRIVEWAY, UPHILL TYPE ONE: Check!
V6POWER: Check
4X4: uh,,, Mehbe, or try again tomorrow,,,, (works great on the flat roads, goes in and out when on hills or in the bouncybumpy stuff.)
I tore the hell out of my driveway the other day getting home after the main snow storm. Made it I did, no small matter being I tortured tested that Posi-trac rearend,,,, That did excellent, and I would NOT have made it otherwise. And EVERY PART of that driveline was heated up and if damp, SMOKIN’!!! LOL (small dribble from the transfer output shaft seal, and I smelled it for certain before looking) I could tell the selenoid actuators did their job, because the front drive shaft was ‘cleaned off’ and fresh grease showing around the lubed bits, and it did shift into LO4,,, but it wasn’t able to engage the front tires since that vacuum motor didn’t ‘lock’ the front diff to the shafts. Things spinning around and not connected to anything means NO POWER TO GROUND. Just extra torque going “phlllbbbttttttttt!”
Don’t get me wrong, I love the “no need to lock hubs” aspect of the Chevy 4×4 options,,,, Too many blowed up hubs seen in the past; where someone had locked them, and promptly forgot and went highballin’ it down freeways.
What I DO NOT LIKE, is the vacuum actuators (nor the ‘pushbutton’ controls to selenoid actuators for the transfer case…) Give me mechanical linkages dangit!!! That was what was in Great White (prior truck that got shot and died slowly thereafter) and I NEVER had iffy-ness in the Four-by,,,,
This one,,,, Small vacuum motor located under the battery box, and roughly 20′ of 3mm vacuum tube ran will-he-nil-he from there, back to the transfer case and back up to the engine bay on the opposite side,,, Stuff just floppin’round under the hood and exposed to weather, heat, oil, gunk, you name it,,,,,
Cheaper to replace ALL of the vacuum lines than purchase a Hard LInk kit for the beast, but damned if I ain’ta tempted,,,,
But not today,,,, 1) its Sunday,,, no place open for the parts I need. 2) its melt off phase and my section of driveway is more swampish than drive-ish. 3) its cold: wet and cold don’t make for fun times while ‘wrenching’. Tempted to get some 5/64″ stainless tubing and replace all the long runs with tubing instead of that cheesy rubber line (think how toyota does all their long vacuum runs under the hood PITA, yes, Bullet proof, DEFINITELY.) I can get all the parts through the Zon for around $50, where the hard linkage kit runs $200. And there is just as much work involved.
OR, I may just replace lines until such time as I do the engine swap THEN do all hard lines for long runs,,,, Still time to figure it out, I only hope we don’t get hammered again with snow anytime soon. (and now, since I said that, YOU KNOW this area is gonna get pummeled again,,,,ROFL)
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Freeday eve memory blast
Not to say I was ‘HERE’ to witness this,,,,
only that there were more than a few artists I worked with that would do something so ‘left feild’ during sound checks, Things that the fans may never have a clue about. Heavy metal artists doing bluegrass,,, Blues artists shredding,,,
Prince PROVES his musicianship in this’un
Not that he needed to prove jackshit to the world,,, IMO
Sadly, so many of that talent level are also leaning ‘not so vertical’ in the sanity department and end up succumbing to chemicals or other things. If I were to make a guess, the desire to ‘STAND OUT’ and be someone can also be self-destructive.
Not much to add to the fray, some thoughts going through my head and private conversations currently,,, Nothing hashed out to something I feel confident to put into the spheres at this time.
Enjoy your weekend,,, I’m buried under snow: And a word to one of my sisters.“HEY!!! Your weather got loose and is running rabid in my backyard,,, you need to get a STRONG leash and come take it home. NOW!”
and now, I am just gonna put on some chill music, gotta bottle of Skyy and a nice fire going,,, gonna turn out the lights and let the music take me away for awhile.
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