The State Liquor Store has re organized again. Now the vodka shelf is twice as long as it used to be. Serious booze, whiskey and gin has lost shelf space. I figure shelf space allocation is a fair measure of popularity. Which means more people are drinking vodka than anything else.
Too bad. Vodka is for drinkers who don't like the taste of booze. They distill all the flavor out of the stuff, and then mix it with orange juice or tomato juice or Kahlua or whatever.
Friday, December 6, 2013
The Aerospace Plane
The idea has been around for ever. I have a beautifully illustrated children's book from 1951 with a drawing of such a machine. Basically a high performance aircraft that would use wings and jet engines to lift an orbiter space craft high and fast. It would be reusable (you fly it back and land it after launching the orbiter) and hence lower cost than a throwaway booster like Atlas.
Attractive as the idea is, so far nobody has ever built one. There are five NASA design studies, the earliest going back to 1986. Since none of them ever flew, it's fair to say that the concept becomes less attractive when you actually have to build and fly one.
Anyhow, hope springs eternal and NASA is going to try again. This time with a rocket powered craft dubbed XS-1. Design goal is to loft a 3000-5000 pound satellite into low earth orbit for $5 million or less. NASA is talking about $3-4 million study contracts early next year, with a $140 million "build-a-flying prototype" contract in 2015. XS-1 is supposed to reach Mach 10 (roughly half orbital velocity). Gross takeoff weight might be 224,000 pounds. That's airliner weight. Presumably XS-1 burns all its rocket fuel on the way up and then glides back to a dead stick landing, the way the shuttle used to do.
Attractive as the idea is, so far nobody has ever built one. There are five NASA design studies, the earliest going back to 1986. Since none of them ever flew, it's fair to say that the concept becomes less attractive when you actually have to build and fly one.
Anyhow, hope springs eternal and NASA is going to try again. This time with a rocket powered craft dubbed XS-1. Design goal is to loft a 3000-5000 pound satellite into low earth orbit for $5 million or less. NASA is talking about $3-4 million study contracts early next year, with a $140 million "build-a-flying prototype" contract in 2015. XS-1 is supposed to reach Mach 10 (roughly half orbital velocity). Gross takeoff weight might be 224,000 pounds. That's airliner weight. Presumably XS-1 burns all its rocket fuel on the way up and then glides back to a dead stick landing, the way the shuttle used to do.
Retirement before entering service?
Airbus Military announced that the prototype A400M transport aircraft has been retired. A400M is the pan European heavy transport program. The aircraft are huge 4 engine turboprops. The first deliverable model only handed over to the French air force this summer. It will take years of production to fill all the back orders for the aircraft. Surely Airbus will have some engineering change orders needing flight check soon.
So why retire the prototype? These things ain't cheap, something like $100 million each. Is the prototype so bent and broken that nobody wants to fly it anymore? Why not fix it up and bring it up to standard and ship it, and get paid for it? Or use it for research and development. Surely there are programs that could use a truly big airlifter for something?
So why retire the prototype? These things ain't cheap, something like $100 million each. Is the prototype so bent and broken that nobody wants to fly it anymore? Why not fix it up and bring it up to standard and ship it, and get paid for it? Or use it for research and development. Surely there are programs that could use a truly big airlifter for something?
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Nelson Mandela died today
The news came over the TV late this afternoon. He was 95, so it cannot be called an untimely death, but he will be missed. Mandela saved his country from a bloody racial war. I don't understand how he did it, but it happened.
In the 1960s and 70's, a small white minority ran South Africa to suit them selves. Blacks were disadvantaged at law, herded into ugly slums, denied a decent education or a decent job. The whites owned all the property, all the companies, ran the army, the police, the courts, the government, everything. The whites had everything except numbers. The white minority was being as nasty and unpleasant as possible, and the majority blacks had had it up to there. They formed the African National Congress, were getting weapons and organizing for a war of extermination. They had the numbers and it looked like South Africa would explode into civil war that would go on until one side or the other was exterminated.
Working inside this powder keg, Mandela somehow convinced the ruling whites to open the country to free elections and allow themselves to be voted out of power. And, after obtaining power, Mandela was able to prevent the now empowered black majority from wrecking an awful vengeance on the white minority.
I still do not understand how Mandela pulled off this miracle, but he did. It saved his country.
In the 1960s and 70's, a small white minority ran South Africa to suit them selves. Blacks were disadvantaged at law, herded into ugly slums, denied a decent education or a decent job. The whites owned all the property, all the companies, ran the army, the police, the courts, the government, everything. The whites had everything except numbers. The white minority was being as nasty and unpleasant as possible, and the majority blacks had had it up to there. They formed the African National Congress, were getting weapons and organizing for a war of extermination. They had the numbers and it looked like South Africa would explode into civil war that would go on until one side or the other was exterminated.
Working inside this powder keg, Mandela somehow convinced the ruling whites to open the country to free elections and allow themselves to be voted out of power. And, after obtaining power, Mandela was able to prevent the now empowered black majority from wrecking an awful vengeance on the white minority.
I still do not understand how Mandela pulled off this miracle, but he did. It saved his country.
Broken Glass
Apparently Google has banned face recognition software from their "Glass" wearable computer, the one that looks like a pair of eyeglasses.
I wonder why.
Glass would be really useful if it would prompt you with a name when you meet some one. About a zillion times I meet some one whose face I recognize but I cannot for the life of me, remember their name. If Glass could recognize the same face and look up the name, it would be a killer app.
I wonder why.
Glass would be really useful if it would prompt you with a name when you meet some one. About a zillion times I meet some one whose face I recognize but I cannot for the life of me, remember their name. If Glass could recognize the same face and look up the name, it would be a killer app.
Gas Tax Hike.
On Fox TV news Neil Cavuto was raking a Congresscritter over the coals about a gas tax hike. The Congresscritter (his name escaped me) was bound and determined to get a gas tax hike to preserve the infrastructure. Cavuto was hammering the Congresscritter to explain where all the billions of dollars already authorized for infrastructure had gone. The Congresscritter clearly had no clue, and no clue about how much has been appropriated in the past.
Cavuto has a point. The federal gas tax paid for building the interstate highway system. But that is done, the system is built, has been built for the last forty years. Routine maintenance, mowing, plowing, repaving, bridge repair, cleaning storm drains and culverts, is one hell of a lot cheaper than building the road in the first place. The state highway departments have been taking care of it. In well run states like New Hampshire, the asphalt is smooth and black, the stripes are bright and freshly painted, the bridges get rebuilt every thirty years or so, and the road doesn't wash out in the spring. In poorly run states like New York, the interstates are not as well maintained, and in fact can get pretty shabby. For instance I-95 across the Bronx.
But that is a state problem. If New Hampshire, with no income tax and no sales tax, can keep its interstates in good shape, there is no reason why New York (which has both) cannot do so too.
Either way, we don't need the feds slinging money around for "transportation" or " infrastructure". The real needs are handled be state governments, using state tax money. Which is the way it should be.
The last big federal project was the Big Dig in Boston. Taxpayers all over the country got soaked for years to pay for a massive project that did make Boston prettier, but didn't improve the traffic flow at all. You gotta ask, why should citizens in, say North Dakota, be paying for a project of benefit only to Boston real estate interests.
Cavuto has it right, we don't want to hike taxes during Great Depression 2.0 just to maintain full employment at some state road contractors.
Cavuto has a point. The federal gas tax paid for building the interstate highway system. But that is done, the system is built, has been built for the last forty years. Routine maintenance, mowing, plowing, repaving, bridge repair, cleaning storm drains and culverts, is one hell of a lot cheaper than building the road in the first place. The state highway departments have been taking care of it. In well run states like New Hampshire, the asphalt is smooth and black, the stripes are bright and freshly painted, the bridges get rebuilt every thirty years or so, and the road doesn't wash out in the spring. In poorly run states like New York, the interstates are not as well maintained, and in fact can get pretty shabby. For instance I-95 across the Bronx.
But that is a state problem. If New Hampshire, with no income tax and no sales tax, can keep its interstates in good shape, there is no reason why New York (which has both) cannot do so too.
Either way, we don't need the feds slinging money around for "transportation" or " infrastructure". The real needs are handled be state governments, using state tax money. Which is the way it should be.
The last big federal project was the Big Dig in Boston. Taxpayers all over the country got soaked for years to pay for a massive project that did make Boston prettier, but didn't improve the traffic flow at all. You gotta ask, why should citizens in, say North Dakota, be paying for a project of benefit only to Boston real estate interests.
Cavuto has it right, we don't want to hike taxes during Great Depression 2.0 just to maintain full employment at some state road contractors.
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Hunger Games, Catching Fire
So I went to see it last night. Not bad. Not quite as good as the first one, but that's sequels for you. The Jax Jr wasn't very full, and half the audience were oldsters like me. I assume the teenagers all saw it over the weekend. If you liked the first one, you will want to see this one, just to learn what happens next to Katniss and Peeta. The director had more money to make this one, so the costumes and sets are richer and fancier
The plot is more complicated and harder to follow if you haven't read the book, which I haven't. Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) has a much more complicated romantic life, with two or three guys seriously in love with here. Everyone has grown up a bit since the first one. They are taller and more heavily muscled, clearly adults, where as in the first one everyone looked young enough to be in high school, if they have high school in that world. The costumes show off everyone's figure to advantage.
Poor Peeta has to put up with a lot. Turns out, that Katniss is no longer madly in love with him, and in fact is interested in one or maybe two other guys. He knows about this, in fact he knows the guys, and he doesn't show any jealousy, in fact he is loyal and supportive all thru the story.
Anyhow, I am glad I went to see it. It's one of the very few movies good enough to get me out to Littleton in the dark, rather than just netflixing them later.
The plot is more complicated and harder to follow if you haven't read the book, which I haven't. Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) has a much more complicated romantic life, with two or three guys seriously in love with here. Everyone has grown up a bit since the first one. They are taller and more heavily muscled, clearly adults, where as in the first one everyone looked young enough to be in high school, if they have high school in that world. The costumes show off everyone's figure to advantage.
Poor Peeta has to put up with a lot. Turns out, that Katniss is no longer madly in love with him, and in fact is interested in one or maybe two other guys. He knows about this, in fact he knows the guys, and he doesn't show any jealousy, in fact he is loyal and supportive all thru the story.
Anyhow, I am glad I went to see it. It's one of the very few movies good enough to get me out to Littleton in the dark, rather than just netflixing them later.
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