December 2020 Archives

Thursday, December 31, 2020

TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: Understanding Synthetic Aperture Radar

Posted at 13:31

CONTEXT: The New Spirit—1942 Donald Duck Propaganda for the U.S. Income Tax

In 1942, the U.S. Income Tax, which was previously paid by only 13 million people, was increased and extended to hit more than 50 million, or 75% of all working Americans. It was called the “Victory Tax” and promoted as supporting the war the U.S. had just entered. In October, 1942, Time magazine called it “The biggest piece of machinery ever designed to separate dollars from citizens.” The Treasury Department enlisted Disney Studios and Donald Duck to promote the tax as a patriotic “privilege, not just your duty.”

“Taxes to beat the Axis!”

The film was nominated for a 1943 Academy Award as Best Documentary.

Posted at 11:59

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: Clam Pollution Sensors

In Warsaw, “the main water pump has 8 clams that have triggers attached to their shells. If the water gets too toxic, they close, and the triggers shut off the city’s water supply automatically.” https://t.co/iP8EcpYR04

— Steve Stewart-Williams (@SteveStuWill) December 30, 2020

Posted at 23:38

THE HAPPENING WORLD: Large Objects in Low Earth Orbit over the Years

End of year tally of large (>100 kg) objects in low (<600 km) orbits versus time pic.twitter.com/0osGni4Ejx

— Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) December 30, 2020

Posted at 21:13

CONTEXT: Ice Age Woolly Rhinoceros Carcass Found in Siberian Permafrost

BREAKING: Another extinct ice age beast exhumed from the permafrost. Exceptionally well-preserved carcass of a juvenile woolly rhinoceros discovered in Yakutia. Its internal organs and stomach contents await investigation. Photos by Valery Plotnikov. https://t.co/5TB8mwbajT pic.twitter.com/yw71lQf6Gf

— The Ice Age ❄️🌞 (@Jamie_Woodward_) December 29, 2020

Posted at 14:34

CONTINUITY: BLC1—The Proxima Centauri SETI Candidate

Posted at 12:30

Tuesday, December 29, 2020

THE HAPPENING WORLD: Arianespace Flight VS25 - CSO-2

In the last Arianespace launch scheduled for 2020, a Soyuz rocket will launch the CSO-2 reconnaissance satellite for the French Ministry of Defense into a Sun-synchronous orbit. The Webcast is scheduled to start at 16:25 UTC on 2020-12-29.

Posted at 16:09

TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: SpaceX's Launch Pad Problem

Posted at 13:02

CONTEXT: Earth During a Solar Eclipse

Posted at 12:24

CONTINUITY: Nobel Physics Prize Lectures, 2020

Addresses by laureates Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel, and Andrea Ghez. I have elided the five minute sanctimonious scientism liturgy at the start.

Posted at 12:15

THE HAPPENING WORLD: SLAMU! SCANALYZER Second Life Avatar Meet-up, 2020-12-29

The first, and possibly last, if it doesn't work, SCANALYZER live meet-up will occur in Second Life on Tuesday, 2020-12-29 at 21:15 UTC (Universal Time—go here to convert to your local time zone).

The meeting will occur in Second Life at the beach fire pit on Fourmilab Island.

To participate, sign up for Second Life (it's free), choose an avatar, and teleport in to the meeting. The meeting will last at most one hour. If it works, we may do it again.

Voice will be enabled for the meeting, but if you haven't yet got voice working (it's tricky), not to worry—you can still participate through text chat.

Posted at 01:51

Monday, December 28, 2020

CONTEXT: Robin Hanson — How Far Away Are Expansionist Aliens?

Related blog posts:

• How Far to Grabby Aliens?   Part 1
• How Far to Grabby Aliens?   Part 2

Posted at 15:50

CONTINUITY: Ma Deuce: The Venerable Browning M2 .50 Caliber Heavy Machine Gun

Still in service more than a century after its introduction. Here's an exemplar in action at the range.

Posted at 12:43

THE HAPPENING WORLD: Deep Faking the Queen's 2020 Christmas Speech

“… which is why I was so saddened by the departure of Harry and Meghan. There are few things more hurtful than someone telling you they prefer the company of Canadians.”

The making of…

Posted at 12:00

Sunday, December 27, 2020

CONTINUITY: Original Autochrome Colour Photos from Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition

Sir Ernest Shackleton's Trans-Antarctic expedition of 1914–1917 is considered to be the last major expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. I have Babelised these autochrome images taken on that expedition by Frank Hurley 106 years ago. They are not colourised. pic.twitter.com/nt1kt7HRT0

— BabelColour 🎞 (@StuartHumphryes) December 27, 2020

Frank Hurley took a small number of photographs in Autochrome, an early colour process, during Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic expedition. These pictures have been corrected for fading, but are not colourised: the colour is in the original.

Posted at 23:13

CONTINUITY: How Sonar Works (Submarine Shadow Zone)

Posted at 14:46

CONTEXT: The Floppotron: Stayin' Alive

Floppotron 2.0 includes 64 floppy drives, 8 hard drives, and two flatbed scanners, all driven by an array of custom controllers built from various hardware. It was designed and constructed by Paweł Zadrożniak in Poland.

Posted at 12:50

Saturday, December 26, 2020

TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: Reverse Engineering the Source Code of the BioNTech/Pfizer SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine

In this post, we'll reverse-engineer the actual mRNA code of the @BioNTech_Group/@pfizer SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, character for character. And along the way, this will also explain how the vaccine works. Surprisingly, there are some fun mysteries in there!https://t.co/HbjPFUXHUG

— Bert Hubert 🇪🇺 (@PowerDNS_Bert) December 25, 2020

Posted at 19:34

TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: “It's a Christmas Miracle!”—The Flight and Rescue of Soviet Space Dogs Kometa and Shutka

Posted at 15:56

THE HAPPENING WORLD: Dominic Frisby: The National Anthem of Libertaria

Posted at 13:47

CONTINUITY: Voyager 2 Phones Home for Christmas

Your periodic reminder that the Deep Space Network is still in communication with Voyager 2 on Christmas Day. https://t.co/a810KRDzbF

— Tim Hamilton (@TSHamiltonAstro) December 25, 2020

Posted at 12:19

Friday, December 25, 2020

THE HAPPENING WORLD: I Wired My Tree with 500 LED Lights and Calculated Their 3D Co-ordinates

Posted at 16:12

CONTEXT: The Scale of Everything — The Big, the Small and the Planck

Posted at 15:17

Thursday, December 24, 2020

CONTINUITY: The Construction and Wiring of Professional LED Strings

This is the serious stuff, for outdoor displays with up to 5,000 LEDs from a common power supply, water-tight, safe for public fingergepoken, and lasting for years. Prepare to pay around five times the price of consumer-grade Chinese junk.

Posted at 14:11

TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: Drawing a Drop of Water

Randall Rudd's instructions for drawing a single drop of water. pic.twitter.com/qHyVu8qRdy

— Pavel A. Samsonov (@PavelASamsonov) December 23, 2020

Posted at 11:37

CONTINUITY: Annotated Recap of SpaceX Starship SN8 High-Altitude Flight

Posted at 01:20

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

CONTINUITY: Aerojet Rocketdyne—Historic Rocket Engine Maker Sold for US$4.4 Billion

Posted at 17:39

CONTINUITY: A Plane without Wings: The Story of the C.450 Coléoptère

French military aircraft prototypes of the 1950 were often wacky, but this one really pushed the limits: tail-sitting vertical takeoff and landing, with the circular wing intended to double as the inlet for ramjet propulsion above Mach 2. Without fly-by-wire and stability augmentation, it proved too difficult for human pilots to fly.

Posted at 13:10

THE HAPPENING WORLD: COVID-19 Reaches Antarctica

Coronavirus reaches end of earth as first outbreak hits Antarctica #SmartNews https://t.co/PjWUpkYsu9

— Nolan S, CFA (@USFNolanS) December 23, 2020

Posted at 13:02

Tuesday, December 22, 2020

TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: Two Planets, Five Moons

The #GreatConjunction of #Jupiter and #Saturn thru my telescope just after 6pm. 4 of Jupiter's moons; Europa, Ganymede, Io & Callisto, and Saturn's Titan moon visible. Stacked many images for more clarity and color. Nexstar Celestron 6SE with Nikon D750 attached. #scwx #ncwx pic.twitter.com/vzP2IAuFnS

— Ed Piotrowski (@EdPiotrowski) December 22, 2020

Posted at 13:18

TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: Why Those Dishwasher “Detergent Pods” Don't Get Stuff Clean

Eewww! Rinse without detergent, then wash dishes in filthy water—that makes sense! But it's so convenient.

Posted at 12:05

CONTEXT: Jupiter-Saturn Conjunction Observed at Radio Wavelengths

Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn seen in radio. pic.twitter.com/IQGCtx9vLe

— Dr Wladimir Lyra (@DrRRLyrae) December 21, 2020

At Jupiter, what you're seeing is a cross-section of the “plasma torus” around the planet formed by emissions from the moon Io. This outshines the planet at the 2 cm wavelength of the image.

Posted at 11:59

Monday, December 21, 2020

TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: Jupiter-Saturn Great Conjunction: Live Feed

Real-time images from telescopes around the world.

Posted at 21:10

TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: Winbond W538T808 speech/melody/LCD Controller Has an Embedded 6502 Processor

Winbond W538T808 speech/melody/LCD Controller die with a 6502 processor hidden inside it pic.twitter.com/foHLJ0LaOm

— Sam Zeloof (@szeloof) December 7, 2020

Wanna bet 23rd century implanted all-brain neural interfaces will have an embedded 6502 for maintenance and diagnostics? That way, when you're bored, you can still run all your favourite Commodore 64 programs.

Posted at 12:47

THE HAPPENING WORLD: Jupiter-Saturn Conjunction

Some people are getting great pictures. So far, Fourmilab is getting dense fog. Observers in the northern hemisphere should look toward the southwest starting around half an hour after sunset. It's a glorious naked eye sight, and binoculars or a small telescope will provide stunning views.

Saturn, Titan, Jupiter and Galilean moons. 1706UT 20 December 2020. #StormHour #ThePhotoHour #GreatConjunction pic.twitter.com/p8BYfMYMgS

— David Blanchflower BSc (@DavidBflower) December 20, 2020

Imaging the conjunction just now. Lots of moons visible in this one. #JupiterandSaturn pic.twitter.com/liAwehHlOW

— Damian Peach (@peachastro) December 21, 2020

Update (2020-12-21 17:01 UTC)

Night of the conjunction. Here it is in the C8. Looked fantastic with naked eye ! pic.twitter.com/lWAcxL9FfR

— Terry Lovejoy (@TerryLovejoy66) December 21, 2020

Update (2020-12-21 19:56 UTC)

Conjunction #Jupiter 🟠 and #Saturn 🪐
From: Hand of the Atacama Desert, Chile.
By our engineer and photo - ambassador Pablo Carrillo.
Tonight more together than ever! You will see it? pic.twitter.com/kf8krMJsDo

— ALMA Observatory at Home📡 (@almaobs) December 21, 2020

Update: (2020-12-22 00:48 UTC)

Conjunction https://t.co/guqaD6arR1 https://t.co/eY36Qyipvb pic.twitter.com/MfaGbZvf4q

— XKCD Comic (@xkcdComic) December 22, 2020

Posted at 12:35

Sunday, December 20, 2020

CONTEXT: What Is The Great Reset? Explaining the World Economic Forum's Controversial Initiative

Update: And…it was gone. (2020-12-21 12:43 UTC)

YouTube has taken down this chat on #theGreatReset for 'violating terms of service.' Nothing sinister about that, eh? https://t.co/GJXRVX1frU

— President-Elect James Delingpole (@JamesDelingpole) December 21, 2020

With Peter Whittle, James Delingpole, and Ben Sixsmith: how COVID-19 has advanced the technocratic agenda.

Posted at 14:49

CONTINUITY: SETI Institute: “Did Proxima Centauri Just Call to Say Hello? Not Really!”

Here is additional information from SETI Institute Senior Astronomer Seth Shostak, “A Signal from Proxima Centauri?”.

I'm surprised that nobody I've seen so far has mentioned how suspicious it is that the narrow-band signal was detected at 982.002 megahertz. The base frequency unit is the Hertz, which is simply 1/seconds, and the second is a human social construct originally derived from the mean length of Earth's day and other social constructs such as the units into which days are divided. It is extremely unlikely an alien technological species would choose a transmission frequency which came out so close to a “round number”. This frequency is within 2000 hertz of exactly 982 megahertz, which is within around two parts per million to an integer value in megahertz, so the odds that a randomly chosen frequency (as would likely be used by aliens who had no knowledge of the Earth's rotation or how naked apes reckon time) would be so close to an integer in megahertz is around 500,000 to one. According to the International Telecommunications Union, this frequency band (960–1164 MHz) is assigned to “Aeronautical Mobile (R) 5.237A” and “Aeronautial Radionavigation 5.328 5.328AA” services.

Posted at 12:10

Saturday, December 19, 2020

THE HAPPENING WORLD: Chateau Egout Grand Cru 2020

Illegal winery busted at Alabama town's sewage plant https://t.co/90ir8XOXwm

— MontanaMama🐻 (@406mama) December 19, 2020

Posted at 15:42

TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: Chang'e 5 Samples Removed from Return Capsule

The Chang'e-5 lunar samples container has been removed from the reentry capsule and found to have a mass of 1,731 grams (just under the ~2 kg planned). Images from China Space News. https://t.co/nZh43pyRD4 pic.twitter.com/tToxOvHUuB

— Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) December 19, 2020

Posted at 13:17

CONTEXT: Alien Hunters Discover Mysterious Signal from Proxima Centauri

Did Breakthrough Listen find aliens? https://t.co/xhkHfHfscL@worden ?

— creon levit (@creon) December 19, 2020

As usual, Scientific Enquirer goes for clicks over accuracy. “[F]rom Proxima Centauri” overstates the precision: a single radio telescope, and the Parkes dish in particular, is sensitive to “side lobes” coming from directions other than where the telescope is aimed. This makes them vulnerable to picking up signals from terrestrial sources or those in Earth or solar orbit, and any SETI candidate signal requires confirmation by at least two independent observatories in different locations. That hasn't happened here, nor has the narrowband, unmodulated signal repeated.

Posted at 12:57

THE HAPPENING WORLD: “Guardians”…of the Galaxy!

Today, after a yearlong process that produced hundreds of submissions and research involving space professionals and members of the general public, we can finally share with you the name by which we will be known: Guardians. pic.twitter.com/Tmlff4LKW6

— United States Space Force (@SpaceForceDoD) December 18, 2020

Posted at 12:53

CONTINUITY: SpaceX/NROL-108 Launch, Second Attempt

This morning’s Falcon 9 launch window opens in two hours at 9am EST (1400 UTC) and runs until 12pm EST (1700 UTC).

A top secret payload for the National Reconnaissance Office is awaiting launch on the Falcon 9 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.https://t.co/6EVsocdJ32 pic.twitter.com/yzY26Y4xkv

— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) December 19, 2020

Weather is predicted as 90% favourable for launch.

Posted at 12:39

Friday, December 18, 2020

THE HAPPENING WORLD: Jupiter and Saturn in One 300 mm Frame

Tonight provided the first opportunity to observe the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn from Fourmilab. Weather this time of year tends to be foul, with dense ground fog which often doesn't clear until the time the giant planets are setting. At 16:33 UTC on 2020-12-18, which is well before the end of nautical twilight (16:58) at this location, and an hour before the end of astronomical twilight (17:58), both planets were easy naked eye objects. Clouds threatened to obscure the planets (and carried out that threat a few minutes after I took this picture). I set up my Nikon D600 camera with its “do-everything” 28–300 mm zoom lens and tried to get some pictures showing both planets in the same 300 mm frame. With the clouds rolling in, I didn't have as much time as I'd have liked to experiment with ISO sensitivity and shutter speeds, and since I had to extend the centre pillar on the tripod to its maximum to dodge a pesky tree branch, the camera tended to be jiggly, even using the mirror lock-up feature (which I always employ for astrophotography). I ended up with a lot of squiggles and potato-shaped gas giants: this is the best of the lot. The apparent sizes of Jupiter and Saturn can be discerned, along with Saturn's more yellow colour, and with a little imagination you can glimpse a hint of Saturn's ring structure. This is a straight crop from the original camera image with no processing other than a little contrast stretch and sharpening. Even three days before the conjunction, the planets really are that close together with respect to their apparent sizes! This is a 1/15 second exposure at ISO 400 with the lens wide open at f/5.6 and a focal length of 300 mm.

If the above picture was devoid of trickery, that can't be said of the one below. I've superimposed the picture of Jupiter and Saturn on a shot of the crescent Moon taken a few minutes before with the same lens and focal length, sloppily focused and blurred by being viewed through a thin cloud. But what you can see is that Jupiter and Saturn are closer already than the apparent diameter of the Moon, which was 0.5144 degrees when this picture was taken.

Posted at 17:06

CONTEXT: Larry Niven and Gregory Benford on Designing an Alien Megastructure: Bowl of Heaven

Read Bowl of Heaven.

Posted at 13:35

THE HAPPENING WORLD: New England Journal of Medicine: Remove Sex from Birth Certificate Identity

Sex designations on birth certificates offer no clinical utility, and they can be harmful for intersex and transgender people. Moving such designations below the line of demarcation would not compromise the birth certificate’s public health function but could avoid harm.

— NEJM (@NEJM) December 17, 2020

No sex, please, we're “doctors”!

Posted at 13:09

TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: Hayabusa-2 Returns 5.4 g Sample from Asteroid 162173 Ryugu

The samples from asteroid Ryugu in the re-entry capsule weigh about 5.4g! This greatly exceeds the the target yield of 0.1g (the amount required for the initial scientific analysis) set during the design of Hayabusa2.
(Article in Japanese: https://t.co/IZFGinhuFc)

— HAYABUSA2@JAXA (@haya2e_jaxa) December 18, 2020

Posted at 11:43

Thursday, December 17, 2020

TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: Astra's Tiny Rocket Gets To Space; SpaceX Wreckage Explored; Angara, Delta IV, and RocketLab Launches

Posted at 13:42

CONTINUITY: Happy Holiday Wishes from INGSOC

Non-compulsory Christmas advice from the Government: https://t.co/WMwKj1Ba8b

— David Deutsch (@DavidDeutschOxf) December 16, 2020

Bubble heads…

The safest way to spend this Christmas is with your household or support bubble in your own home. From 23 December to 27 December, you may choose to form a Christmas bubble. To protect you and your loved ones, think very carefully about the risks of forming a Christmas bubble. You should keep your Christmas bubble as small as possible and minimise the time you spend with your bubble.

Posted at 12:43

THE HAPPENING WORLD: SpaceX/NROL-108 Launch

The launch window for SpaceX’s 26th and final mission of the year opens in two hours.

A Falcon 9 rocket is set to lift off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the NROL-108 mission with a payload for the National Reconnaissance Office.https://t.co/6EVsocdJ32 pic.twitter.com/mGJUkdctRp

— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) December 17, 2020

The three-hour launch window opens at 14:00 UTC on 2020-12-17. The first stage booster is planned to return to the launch site for landing. Here is the webcast of the launch.

Posted at 12:36

Wednesday, December 16, 2020

CONTEXT: Starman Now Tailgating the Earth

A reminder that there's a car in orbit around the Sun. If you pause on today's date you can see we're being tailed. With some solar panels and science instruments it might have made for a convenient space probepic.twitter.com/7qUCyQoXcM

— James O'Donoghue (@physicsJ) December 16, 2020

Posted at 21:36

THE HAPPENING WORLD: Chang'e 5 Lands in Inner Mongolia (China)

Chinese recovery crews have arrived at the Chang’e 5 lunar sample return capsule after landing in China’s Inner Mongolia region. https://t.co/ToaS0qB6xC pic.twitter.com/m998YhTGXP

— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) December 16, 2020

Chang'e 5 capsule pic.twitter.com/GZqh3QdIOS

— Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) December 16, 2020

Posted at 18:37

CONTINUITY: UCLA's Mechanical Brain

UCLA's Bush Differential Analyzer appeared in two Hollywood movies: When Worlds Collide and Earth vs. the Flying Saucers. It was donated to the Smithsonian Institution in 1977.

Posted at 16:33

THE HAPPENING WORLD: Chang'e 5 Re-entry and Landing on the Earth—Live Stream

Stream is scheduled to start at 16:00 UTC on 2020-12-16.

Posted at 15:19

TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: Bitcoin: IRS “Setting the Trap” for U.S. Taxpayers

IRS is ‘setting the trap’ for bitcoin and virtual currency investors on 2020 tax form https://t.co/xdBRpr1ZzI by @JannaHerron pic.twitter.com/OkzLzrvSJ6

— Yahoo Finance (@YahooFinance) December 16, 2020

No matter what country you live in, your country sees you as a milk cow. If things get tough for them [the political class], they will treat you as a beef cow.

— Doug Casey

In other news, today (2020-12-16), Bitcoin traded above US$20,000/BTC.

One word: Bitcoin.

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) December 16, 2020

Posted at 14:27

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

THE HAPPENING WORLD: Stephen Wolfram on Computation and the Fundamental Theory of Physics

For much more information, visit the Wolfram Physics Project Web site and/or read his book, A Project to Find the Fundamental Theory of Physics. I believe this is one of the most interesting intellectual undertakings at the present time.

Posted at 19:57

CONTINUITY: Mechanical Frequency Meters

I haven't seen one of these for decades. They're a remarkably clever application of resonance in an electro-mechanical system.

UPDATE: Responding to viewer comments, and demonstrating with a variable-frequency driver.

Posted at 19:23

TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: Out of Fuel at 41,000 Feet: Understanding the “Gimli Glider” Incident

Posted at 14:52

CONTEXT: Dead Simple Time-Domain Reflectometry with Just a Battery and an Oscilloscope

Dead Simple Time-Domain Reflectometry with Just a Battery and an Oscilloscope

“Time-domain reflectometry” sure sounds like something that needs racks of expensive equipment to accomplish. In reality, TDR is just measuring the time between injecting a pu… https://t.co/KdMSV8VXF1

— hackaday (@hackaday) December 15, 2020

We used optical time-domain reflectometry here at Fourmilab to figure out where to dig up the street when rats interrupted our fibre-optic Internet connection.

Posted at 00:31

CONTINUITY: 1966—NASA Strands Ten Million Living Organisms in Earth Orbit

Launched #OTD in 1966, Biosatellite 1 carried more than 10-million tiny living organisms into space to study the effects of the space environment on life processes. Unfortunately, the vehicle's reentry rocket failed, leaving the capsule and valuable data stranded in orbit. pic.twitter.com/hlcxLTHVzL

— NASA History Office (@NASAhistory) December 15, 2020

Me no Laika.

Posted at 00:16

Monday, December 14, 2020

TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: SpaceX Starship SN8 Test Flight—Clean Audio and 4K Video

Posted at 20:30

CONTINUITY: Simulated Nuclear Weapon Testing: 500 Ton TNT Detonation in Canada, July 1964

500 tons of TNT produce an airburst comparable to a one kiloton nuclear weapon.

Posted at 20:07

CONTEXT: Why Is It Impossible for Telescopes on Earth to See Spacecraft on the Moon?

Posted at 16:51

THE HAPPENING WORLD: Hayabusa-2 Sample Container Opened

The sample container inside the re-entry capsule was opened on December 14, and we confirmed black grains thought to be from Ryugu were inside. This is outside the main chambers, and likely particles attached to the sample catcher entrance. (English release available tomorrow) https://t.co/NAw1R1cjvy pic.twitter.com/5BfXxfH29h

— HAYABUSA2@JAXA (@haya2e_jaxa) December 14, 2020

Posted at 15:00

Sunday, December 13, 2020

TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: World Economic Forum: Welcome to 2030, Serf

From the 2016 document “8 predictions for the world in 2030”, well before anybody had heard of COVID-19. This is where the oligarchs are taking us with their “Great Reset”. Here are the bullet (ahem) points.

1. All products will have become services.
2. There is a global price on carbon.
3. US dominance is over. We have a handful of global powers.
4. Farewell hospital, hello home-spital.
5. We are eating much less meat.
6. Today’s Syrian refugees, 2030’s CEOs.
7. The values that built the West will have been tested to breaking point.
8. “By the 2030s, we'll be ready to move humans toward the Red Planet.”

Posted at 20:02

CONTEXT: Barotropic Global Ocean Tides

Continents interrupt the flow of tidal bulges, causing water to “slosh” in the oceans, resulting in complex timing and amplitude of tides.

Posted at 13:11

TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: French Solar Road a Total Failure

First French solar road completely broken after 3yrs

Cost $5.2m, produced ½ the power bc rotting leaves

In total, produced 270,000 kWh, worth $13,000 (at wholesale €40/MWh)

Would have paid for itself after just 400 yearshttps://t.co/Nn3hJmfabbhttps://t.co/Eol4ACANl5

— Bjorn Lomborg (@BjornLomborg) December 13, 2020

Posted at 12:10

CONTEXT: The Closest Stars

I've just put up my latest map: The Closest Stars. This (so far as I know) shows every confirmed star, brown dwarf and planet within 10 parsecs. If anything is missing or incorrect, I'd like to know! The zoomable version is here: https://t.co/4aDmxYhcY4 pic.twitter.com/NoOxiP4OZA

— Galaxy Map (@galaxy_map) December 12, 2020

Posted at 12:07

CONTINUITY: Spaceships, then and Now

John Polgreen illustration for 1959's Space Flight – The Coming Exploration of the Universe, but Lester del Rey. A children's book, but if you could somehow turn 1959 into an image, this would have to be in the running. pic.twitter.com/n9Lm4enjOB

— Paul Drye (@paul_drye) December 12, 2020

Not all that different from Starship, at first glance, although the stage allocation is different. And who imagined everything being reusable?

Posted at 01:34

Saturday, December 12, 2020

THE HAPPENING WORLD: Virgin Galactic Flight Aborts after One Second

The #VSSUnity aborted after just 1 second of powered flight. The CREW IS SAFE, having manually landed the craft after the abort. #VirginGalactic #SpaceportAmerica #NewMexico

ARTICLE from myself and Thomas Burghardt (@TGMetsFan98): https://t.co/NAgZHShy8B

— Chris G - NSF (@ChrisG_NSF) December 12, 2020

After the engine cut off, the craft made a gliding return to the runway and landed safely.

Posted at 19:25

TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: How to Harvest Pecans

Posted at 15:31

CONTEXT: James Flynn, R.I.P.

RIP James Flynn. Flynn is best-known for his meticulous work on the rise of IQ scores over time (the Flynn effect). Sad to see him go – a truly great scholar. pic.twitter.com/PoFKCj5yAv

— Steve Stewart-Williams (@SteveStuWill) December 11, 2020

James Flynn was the discoverer and explorer of the Flynn effect, one of the greatest mysteries in the human sciences in the last century.

Posted at 00:34

Friday, December 11, 2020

TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: SpaceX Starship SN9 Goes Wobbly

Uhhhh SN9.... that’s.... not how you’re supposed to be standing!! Loud bang and I’m afraid SN9’s roll out and flight is now delayed. The stand it was on appears to have shifted. Hope everyone is ok. pic.twitter.com/XALMaxPvMw

— Everyday Astronaut (@Erdayastronaut) December 11, 2020

Posted at 15:37

THE HAPPENING WORLD: SpaceX/SiriusXM SXM 7 Launch

A SiriusXM radio satellite is set for launch from Florida on Friday on a Falcon 9 rocket, capping a busy week for SpaceX that included the debut of a new space station cargo ship and a spectacular test flight of a prototype rocket over South Texas.

More: https://t.co/4Gex8Aa9P5 pic.twitter.com/xy2x6mzbw1

— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) December 11, 2020

The launch window is 2020-12-11 from 16:21 to 18:20 UTC. If the Falcon 9 launches on time, it will be 15 hours, 12 minutes after the Delta IV Heavy launch last night, the shortest interval between two orbital launches from Cape Canaveral since September 1967.

Posted at 12:12

Thursday, December 10, 2020

CONTINUITY: 1950s Teleregister Numerical Displays

In the 1950s big city stockbrokers' offices had large boards that showed near-real-time quotes of the most traded stocks. These boards had hundreds of these Teleregister electromechanical displays, which could be set by simple pulses of DC current and required no power unless they were changing. By 1964, these quote boards were installed in around 650 brokerage offices in the U.S. A few years later, they had all been replaced by quote machines.

Posted at 19:36

THE HAPPENING WORLD: Delta IV Heavy / NROL-44: Will the Hangar Queen Finally Fly?

United Launch Alliance is set to try again to launch a Delta 4-Heavy rocket and a classified US government spy satellite from Florida Thursday after delays of more than three months due to persistent issues with the mission’s launch pad.

📷: @ulalaunchhttps://t.co/Yl3GrXUYYs pic.twitter.com/vkWRhZJIv1

— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) December 10, 2020

ULA have been trying to launch this rocket since August 26th. Today's attempt will be its sixth announced launch date, with two prior countdowns halting shortly before liftoff. The scheduled launch time is 23:15 UTC on 2020-12-10, with weather predicted as 90% favourable for the attempt.

Posted at 12:54

TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: SpaceX’s Biggest Starship Flight Is a Spectacular Success Even after Crash Landing

Here is Scott Manley's analysis of the SpaceX Starship SN8 flight test. Scott believes that the two Raptor engine shutdowns during ascent were intended, as part of a thrust reducing programme to slow and halt the ascent near the intended altitude and hover during the horizontal translation toward the landing site. Based on the most recent information I can find, the Raptor cannot be throttled below 40% of full thrust, so shutting down engines as the vehicle loses mass due to propellant consumption may be necessary. Further, maintaining engine power is the only way for the vehicle to remain stable during the ascent phase.

This analysis is reinforced by the observation that the two engines which that restarted to perform the flip maneuver and landing (which failed due to fuel starvation) were the ones shut down during ascent. If they had been shut down due to a detected failure, it's unlikely they would have restarted.

Posted at 12:27

Wednesday, December 9, 2020

THE HAPPENING WORLD: SpaceX Starship High Altitude Test Flight

I have set the video to start at 30 seconds before launch.

Posted at 23:26

CONTEXT: Textron Battlehawk, “Squad-Level Loitering Munition”

Scott Adams envisioned the consequences of the integration of model airplanes, high explosives, satellite guidance, and facial recognition software into “personal killer drones” in his 2004 book The Religion War.

Posted at 14:59

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

THE HAPPENING WORLD: “Smellicopter” Drone Uses a Live Moth Antenna to Seek Out Smells

'The Smellicopter,' an obstacle-avoiding drone that uses a live #moth #antenna to seek out smells https://t.co/iNXioRkxXr

— TechXplore (@TechXplore_com) December 8, 2020

Posted at 15:49

THE HAPPENING WORLD: SpaceX Starship SN8 High Altitude Flight Test

The webcast is currently scheduled to start at 16:00 UTC on 2020-12-08.

Posted at 15:02

CONTEXT: SpaceX Falcon User's Guide

Geek out! Everything you wanted to know about the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, with detailed information on design, performance, and payload integration are in the 72 page Falcon User's Guide [PDF].

Posted at 12:45

Monday, December 7, 2020

THE HAPPENING WORLD: Parking Scarce at the International Space Station

With today’s Cargo Dragon docking, there are two Dragon spaceships parked at the International Space Station.

Including the Dragons, two Progress supply ships, a Soyuz craft, and a Cygnus cargo freighter, the space station’s mass measures 996,828 pounds.https://t.co/XY7SRBfONA pic.twitter.com/bvuzU29RLg

— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) December 7, 2020

996,828 pounds is 452 tonnes in civilised units.

Posted at 21:43

TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: Chang’e 5 Spacecraft Lands on the Moon and Returns Moon Rocks to Orbit

Posted at 20:34

CONTINUITY: Paris Air Show 2021 Cancelled

The 2021 Paris Air Show cancelled due to coronavirus pandemic, via @FlightGlobal https://t.co/TS4BbJ97je

— Edward Russell (@ByERussell) December 7, 2020

Posted at 14:34

CONTEXT: Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn

The next time the planets will be this close is 2080, making the event a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle for most adults https://t.co/EW9RGwwhED

— NYT Science (@NYTScience) December 7, 2020

Posted at 13:24

Sunday, December 6, 2020

TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: Tearing Down a Starlink User Terminal

"...you have to cough up $500 for the hardware and another $100 a month for the service. Despite the fairly high bar for getting your hands on one, [Kenneth Keiter] decided to sacrifice his Starlink dish to the teardown Gods."https://t.co/P1LhJoq82w

— Hans G. Schantz 📚尚茨📡🧲⚜️🇺🇸 (@AetherCzar) December 6, 2020

It doesn’t appear that you can realistically get into the exceptionally thin antenna array without pulling it all apart, thanks in part to preposterous amount of adhesive that holds the structural back plate onto the PCB. The sky-facing side of the phased array, the key element that allows the antenna to track the rapidly moving Starlink satellites as they pass overhead, is also laminated to a stack-up comprised of plastic hexagonal mesh layers, passive antenna elements, and the outer fiberglass skin. In short, there are definitely no user-serviceable parts inside.

Posted at 13:57

CONTEXT: Tiny Chain-Link Fence Made With Hand-Cranked Brilliance

Tiny Chain-Link Fence Made With Hand-Cranked Brilliance

Chain link fences are woven with a mechanism that is almost hypnotic to watch, so [Levsha] decided to build his own tiny hand-crank tabletop version to make tiny copper wire fences.

Chain link con… https://t.co/aHJAYeEVmq

— hackaday (@hackaday) December 6, 2020

The narration in the following video is in Russian, but you can turn on English subtitles.

Posted at 13:42

TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: Chang'e 5 Lunar Orbit Rendezvous, Docking, and Sample Transfer

Chang'e 5 rendezvous, first robotic lunar docking, sample capsule transfer to return capsule.
📸：CNSA/CLEP
ℹ：https://t.co/xP7FULCtp4 pic.twitter.com/of5JCfjQrB

— LaunchStuff (@LaunchStuff) December 6, 2020

Click the tweet to see the sample capsule transfer and undocking of the return vehicle from the ascender.

Posted at 13:35

CONTINUITY: Hayabusa-2 Sample Capsule Recovered in Australia

Capsule collection! The helicopter team immediately flew to the location identified by the DFS team. They searched for the fallen capsule by using radio waves and maps. Thank you very much!
(Collection Team M)#Hayabusa2#はやぶさ２#AsteroidExplorerHayabusa2 #HAYA2Report pic.twitter.com/KSyEbnU3Yd

— HAYABUSA2@JAXA (@haya2e_jaxa) December 6, 2020

Why Australia? Because Japan is a long, skinny country with little east-west extent, varied terrain, and dense vegetation. The Australian outback is a much larger target and an easier place to find the capsule when it comes down.

Posted at 13:29

THE HAPPENING WORLD: Chang'e-5 Ascent Vehicle and Orbiter Rendezvous and Dock in Lunar Orbit

Success. The Chang'e-5 ascent vehicle and orbiter have completed rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit. Massive step towards bringing home fresh lunar samples. pic.twitter.com/qMwkHkO7XE

— Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) December 5, 2020

Posted at 00:30

Saturday, December 5, 2020

CONTINUITY: X-Plane: Starship — Flight Simulator for SpaceX’s Starship Rocket

Posted at 16:02

CONTEXT: Forced Landing at Night

Masterful airmanship by an aerobatics champion following engine failure in a single engine light plane results in a night landing on a freeway in Minnesota with no injuries to passengers of the plane or cars.

Posted at 15:59

THE HAPPENING WORLD: Hayabusa-2 Asteroid Sample Return Re-entry and Landing

Live stream is scheduled to start at 17:00 UTC on 2020-12-05. And it will start then: the capsule has been released and from now on Prof. Newton is in the driver’s seat.

Posted at 14:41

THE HAPPENING WORLD: New Cargo Dragon Ready for Launch to the International Space Station

There are 50-50 odds of acceptable weather at the Kennedy Space Center for launch of a Falcon 9 rocket and Cargo Dragon capsule at 11:39am EST (1639 GMT) Saturday.

There is a high risk of poor conditions for landing of the Falcon 9 booster offshore.https://t.co/FAMaoqlOTP pic.twitter.com/NR0TX9EdW4

— Spaceflight Now (@SpaceflightNow) December 4, 2020

Launch is scheduled for 2020-12-05 at 16:39 UTC. Probability of acceptable weather is 50%. This will be the first flight of the new model Cargo Dragon, based upon the Crew Dragon design.

Posted at 12:17

TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Spots Chang'e 5 on the Moon

Look at that: China's Chang'e-5 lander on the Moon, seen by NASA's LRO satellite in lunar orbit. https://t.co/Kwc5AvXV1o pic.twitter.com/nX3VB2z4un

— Corey S. Powell (@coreyspowell) December 5, 2020

Posted at 12:16

Friday, December 4, 2020

TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: Analysing Video Footage of Collapse of Massive Arecibo Telescope

Posted at 23:05

CONTEXT: Visualising the True Size of Africa

Africa is big!https://t.co/uw4IkX5lMB

— Hans G. Schantz 📚尚茨📡🧲⚜️🇺🇸 (@AetherCzar) December 4, 2020

Posted at 15:40

THE HAPPENING WORLD: ONE Apus: 1900 Containers Lost or Damaged

Oooh boy! Crew member shared a picture of the ONE Apus following reports of an estimated 1900 container lost or damaged. This could be the worst liner shipping disaster outside of total loss of vessel! pic.twitter.com/BmDxSSg5UG

— Connor Helm (@connorhelm) December 2, 2020

More on the incident.

Posted at 15:10

TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: Explosive Hydroforming a Steel Sphere

Explosive hydroforming a steel sphere. pic.twitter.com/K77G72S1xM

— MachinePix (@MachinePix) December 3, 2020

Posted at 14:38

THE HAPPENING WORLD: Hayabusa-2 Asteroid Samples On-course for Australia Landing

Asteroid samples will land in Woomera, Australia next Sunday.https://t.co/SMleAr8dM8

— Roger Powell (@Ggreybeard) December 4, 2020

Atmospheric entry is expected to start on 2020-12-05 at 17:28 UTC, with landing around 20 minutes later. More information.

Posted at 13:12

Thursday, December 3, 2020

CONTINUITY: DeepMind Solves Protein Folding: AlphaFold 2

Posted at 22:35

Wednesday, December 2, 2020

CONTEXT: Lutetium

Posted at 21:56

THE HAPPENING WORLD: Chang'e 5 Panorama

Posted at 20:42