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Uncle Dick - World Class Pyromaniac
(This post is unrelated to the ongoing topics of audio, video, networking and electronics. This post is a personal addendum to a SoylentNews book review.)
An unexpected bonus from reading Ignition - An Informal History Of Liquid Rocket Propellants by Dr. John D. Clark was a possible family connection. I could never place "Uncle Dick" in my family tree. Perhaps he was an honorary relative. Perhaps my redneck family crashed a wedding or something. Regardless, I've had a first-hand account of wire-guided missile development and a first-hand explanation of the criteria for a supersonic airframe. Until reading Ignition, I assumed these were unrelated developments. However, I now understand these topics to be part of a Cold War weapon development program.
I may have the details wrong but "Uncle Dick" was a junior member of a team who had access to a military firing range for one week. They had some surplus tanks from World War 2 which were in moderate condition. Someone at the hot end of the range (crazy people) rigged each tank so that it would drive itself across the range while the rest of team fired at it. He said that being paid to destroy tanks with his own design of rocket launcher was one of the best working weeks of his life. Within my family, he had a reputation for being a pyromaniac due to his account of this and other incidences.
When he said to me that the launcher had a spool of wire, I thought that he was another distant relative with a dry sense of humor. Surely, it is best to fire where the tank will be. This would be the shortest and fastest route. However, distance and fuel conservation aren't concerns. Furthermore, a wire-guided missile allows an infantry grunt to trivially adjust the direction of a missile to compensate for changes to the target's speed after the missle has been fired. This is such a useful concept that it was further developed into the laser-guided weapon.
I may have the details wrong but "Uncle Dick" was a more senior member of a team which developed aerospace grade titanium. A supersonic aircraft requires a large block of titanium to be extruded. This eliminates welding. This increases strength. It also provides another essential property. A titanium frame must have zero air bubbles and zero water bubbles. This cannot be guaranteed if there is welding. The problem is quite severe. When an aircraft goes supersonic, friction from the air may cause oxygen in an air or water bubble to catalyze with titanium. A cavity to the exterior would cause a runaway reaction. The end result would be a very large firework and a dead crew.
When I last saw "Uncle Dick", he said that the first person to solve the semiconductor heating problem would be a trillionaire. Since then, I've keenly followed reversible computing and quantum computing.
Weinstein Accused of Rape
Harvey Weinstein Accused of Rape in New Yorker Exposé
From Aggressive Overtures to Sexual Assault: Harvey Weinstein’s Accusers Tell Their Stories
Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie and Others Say Weinstein Harassed Them
Harvey Weinstein Paid Off Sexual Harassment Accusers for Decades
Harvey Weinstein gives first interview after shocking sex harassment claims
Did somebody say Paltrow?
Las Vegas Shooter: Stone Cold Vampyr
Calm Before the Storm
What Did President Trump Mean by ‘Calm Before the Storm’?
President Trump was clearly looking to make some kind of news, but about what, exactly, was not clear. And the mystery, as it often does with a president whose statements baffle even his staff, only deepened the next day.
On Thursday evening, the White House told the presidential press corps that Mr. Trump was done with his public schedule for the day. But around 7 p.m., Mr. Trump summoned reporters who were still at work to the State Dining Room, where he was throwing a dinner for military commanders and their spouses.
Gesturing to his guests, he said, “You guys know what this represents? Maybe it’s the calm before the storm.”
“What’s the storm?” asked one reporter.
“Could be the calm before the storm,” Mr. Trump repeated, stretching out the phrase, a sly smile playing across his face.
“From Iran?” ventured another reporter. “On ISIS? On what?”
“What storm, Mr. President?” asked a third journalist, a hint of impatience creeping into her voice.
As the generals shifted from foot to foot, Mr. Trump brought the game of 20 Questions to an end. He praised his beribboned guests as the “world’s great military people” and excused the stymied reporters, who returned to their workstations to start another round of: What was the president talking about?
By Friday, the White House was still unable to shed light on the matter; several of Mr. Trump’s aides said they had no idea what the president meant. But the press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, wanted to make one thing clear: Mr. Trump wasn’t just teasing his favorite antagonists. He was sending a message.
“I wouldn’t say that he’s messing with the press,” Ms. Sanders told reporters. “I think we have some serious world issues here. I think that North Korea, Iran both continue to be bad actors, and the president is somebody who’s going to always look for ways to protect Americans, and he’s not going to dictate what those actions may look like.”
Suddenly, Mr. Trump’s preprandial banter took on an ominous tone. Maybe he was foreshadowing war with North Korea, which he has already threatened with “fire and fury” if the reclusive country aimed its missiles at the United States. Or perhaps he was predicting a clash with Iran, a week before he is expected to disavow the nuclear deal negotiated by his predecessor, Barack Obama.
“He certainly doesn’t want to lay out his game plan for our enemies,” Ms. Sanders declared.
U.S. House of Representatives Passes 20-Week Abortion Ban
House passes 20-week abortion ban
The measure passed heavily along party lines, 237-189.
The bill allows exceptions in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the woman and wouldn't penalize women for seeking to get abortions after 20 weeks.
The legislation is likely to face a tough sell in the Senate. A similar bill passed the House in 2015 but was blocked by Senate Democrats.
With only a 52-seat majority it would be unlikely Senate Republicans could gather the 60 votes needed to move the legislation to President Trump's desk.
Skin Flutes
Semen-contaminated flutes might have been given to children, California school officials warn (archive)
Several school districts in Southern California warned parents this weekend that flutes and recorders given to children through a nonprofit music program may have been contaminated with bodily fluids. At least one district specified that those fluids could have been semen.
Local, state and federal agencies were investigating a male music teacher who visited schools in Southern California through a program called Flutes Across the World, according to updates from the Saugus Union School District, which serves the Santa Clarita area.
“The performer distributes a flutelike musical instrument made of PVC pipe or bamboo to students during a music lesson, and the allegation is that he contaminated some of these instruments with semen,” Saugus Union Superintendent Joan Lucid said in an email to parents on Saturday. “These allegations are deeply concerning, and I realize they raise many questions.”
The California Department of Justice and the U.S. Postal Service were among the agencies investigating the program, the district said. Lucid said children were never alone with the music specialist, who was not a district employee.
Flutes "stained with a man's bodily fluids" issued to California schoolchildren
Flutes Across the World: Japan Edition.
Obama's former nanny "lives in fear in Jakarta slum"
Chinese Uighur Modeling
The LapBook Air
Eds! Let my Submission Go!
Here we are, two days after The Morgatory Blizzander took exception to one of my submissions that was approved by another ed. Strange, because TMB is not even an ed, he is only a coder, from what I understand, so how could his objection overrule the decision of an editor? The result, as documented in my last journal, is that my submission has been deep sixed, marked as hidden, so that it is not in the queue, not in the pre-queue, not anywhere! I request, respectfully, that the eds cease this act of censorship. TMB's objections are no more valid than mine, and since I thought this particular article important enough to be a submission to SoylentNews, TMB's objections are noted, but now I think he may actually be a Nazi. Which, as a Native American, seems strange. But I do remember a scene in the movie "Under the Volcano", starring Albert Finney, where a Metis riding on a bus, and wearing a National Socialist Party Pin, harasses a full-blood Native American Mexican. And then it hit me! Not about racial purity at all, since the half-breeds could feel superior to the full bloods, as long as they were not of the "right" blood. TMB is a mongrel. Not that there is anything wrong with that, I am one, too! But to object to an investigative piece looking into the alt-right, because he is afraid, and I repeat, AFRAID, that I am calling him a Nazi? Methinks the Buzzard protests too much. Let my submission go, eds! Let it go.
