Category Archives: News

Not since Harvey …

News, Photography, ,

… has the street in front of CatBeard Manor had so much water.

Granted at the height of the heaviest rain during Harvey the entire street was curb-to- curb water and moving up into my front yard. Today it is only curb-to-curb to the west of me.

When Topical Storm Imelda was coming ashore earlier this week, I thought “good we’ll finally get some rain”. I even put down fertilizer and garden lime on my yard to be watered-in by the rain. Then … nothing … light intermittent drizzle Monday and Tuesday followed by a few short showers yesterday. Be careful what you wish for.

I’m off work this week on a “staycation”. I was making a Starbucks run about 11 AM when it began. By the time I got back to my driveway the deluge had begun. Heavy downpour for over an hour before a temporary respite, and we are at the trailing edge of what is now Tropical Depression Imelda. Houston proper and points east are getting the brunt of it.

We have always been an “island in the stream” during flooding events. In the thirty years we have been here even the worst flooding events has left us high and dry.

All of the usual places that flood in Houston are flooding now. Watching LIVE YouTube coverage of Houston weather and flooding. It’s pretty bad.

I’m glad I took the week off.

cb

CatBeard Manor

Sunday – Lap Day

Blogging, Cats, News, ,

I haven’t been posting much lately. Too much “life” going on … in a good way.

I have been working in my profession since April after a difficult two years. So, yeah things are going OK. Turned the big 65 last Sunday. The “pride” is still going strong.

Bottom left clockwise: Sir Edmund Hillary, Pickles, and the grant old lady … Patches. Not a very photogenic picture, but you get the point.

All good things …

Food, History, News

In 1981 I moved to Houston from college in Golden Colorado to begin my career in the oil patch. West Houston. Katy. Not much was out here back then. Nonmacher’s Bar-B-Q was one of the few food establishments in the area at the time.

Texas BBQ. In my opinion, the best in the Katy area. If I understand correctly, Nonmacher made a name for himself selling BBQ at the Houston rodeo and other venues. John even gave me the recipe for his smoked pork loin that he sold only on Saturdays (two pork loins tied together with butchers twine, stuffed with onions and jalapeños, encrusted in lemon-pepper and smoked). I have made it several times, but it was always easier to get it from him.

But the area grew and many restaurants opened including many BBQ restaurants. Nonmacher’s was in a small strip center with only a few parking spaces. Most of his business was take away.

Nonmacher’s BBQ got some bad press in 2011 when some customers were offended by the “Let’s play cowboys and IRANIANS” poster hanging on the wall. This poster was from the Iran Hostage Crisis (1979 – 1981), a time when U.S. and Texas sentiment toward Iran was understandably negative. The people offended by it had most likely not even been born until well after the event.

John Nonmacher died of bladder cancer in 2013 and his wife Trudy continued to run Nonmacher’s BBQ after his death.

…

I went get some BBQ today and discovered that they had closed. As the sign says “All good things must come to an end“.

Nonmacher’s BBQ on Facebook

John Nonmacher on Facebook

John Nonmacher Obituary

FH Launch in (( STEREO ))

History, Mars, News, Photography, Science, Space Travel, SpaceX, Technology, Video, Welcome to the Future, ,

This is really cool. It’s true – the sound is even more mind blowing than the imagery.

Listen with headphones.

https://youtu.be/ImoQqNyRL8Y

But … as impressive as the sound of the video above is with headphones on … you still miss the full body sensation of your innards vibrating from the low frequency rumble. Perhaps listening with headphones AND a really powerful sub-woofer?

360 Launch Video

Mars, News, Photography, Science, Space Travel, SpaceX, Technology, Video, Welcome to the Future, , , , ,

Everyday Astronaut (Tim Dodd) has posted his 360 degree video of his experience three miles away from the Falcon Heavy launch. He is standing exactly where I was at the final Saturn V launch of Skylab. This is very nostalgic for me and I understand the emotions he must have been feeling.

You can watch it here in full 360 degrees: https://youtu.be/tBhuSTXMCaI *

Tim is doing a fantastic job covering SpaceX and spaceflight in general. His videos are simultaneously highly informative – and – entertaining! His enthusiasm is contagious.

Please check out Tim’s home page (https://everydayastronaut.com) and his YouTube channel.

You can support him via Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/EverydayAstronaut)

Also be sure to check out his online shop (https://everydayastronaut.com/shop/)

If you have not already done so, check out A Blast (off) From My Past  for an accounting of my experience at the Saturn V launch, some 45 years ago.

Related: https://contrafactual.com/2018/02/06/a-blast-off-from-my-past-2/

* I tried to embed the video, but WordPress and/or iOS Safari wouldn’t support 360 in the embedded version.

Synchronized Landing

Mars, News, Photography, Reblog, Space Travel, SpaceX, Technology, Video, ,

Unless you have been living under a rock, you now know that yesterday SpaceX accomplished something spectacular. That being the launch and partially successful landing of the Falcon Heavy boosters and the delivery of “Starman” in Elon Musk’s vintage cherry red Tesla Roadster. Both side boosters landed successfully back at the Cape as shown below. Unfortunately the core section failed to initiate the final landing burn and crashed next to the recovery drone ship. YouTube, Reddit, and Twitter are replete with coverage and discussion.

I have selected a few choice (short) videos below for your enjoyments.

Note that even though the bottom videos from the returning side boosters shown above are supposed to be from each individual booster, someone goofed and we see the same video stream displayed on the left and right. SpaceX corrected this with a later video, but that is not currently available on YouTube.

Below is one of the better spectator videos of the landings. (There are many)

Let the New Space Race begin!

Musical Milestones

History, Internet, Music, News, Opinion, Rant, Stuff, Technology, Video, Welcome to the Future,

First there was 22,000 Days …

and now (just the music – no relation to the folks in the video)

because …

Side bar … although I own* many versions of “Birthday” – vinyl, cassette, CD, and iTunes – I can’t play it for you due to “copyright issues”, so I am forced to find the best cover on YouTube.

Welcome to the Future.

(Sigh)

* no longer sure I actually own them, but I sure paid for them

Relevant RANTS: HERE and HERE

SpaceX Texas

BFR, Mars, News, Space Travel, SpaceX, Technology, Video, Welcome to the Future, , ,

Ran into a guy a few weeks back wearing an Occupy Mars T-shirt and asked him if he worked for SpaceX. Turns out he was a machinist at the McGregor facility. I shook his hand and thanked him for keeping the dream alive. He protested saying he was just a machinist and I told him that every job mattered in building rockets.

I actually tried to visit the McGregor facility a few years ago on a road trip back from Denver. They had just installed the new guard shack at the entrance and they turned me away. Apparently you can schedule a tour in advance but I haven’t figured out how to do that yet. I suspect they have the occasional “open house” for the local residents of McGregor.

ICBT | SpaceX

News, Space Travel, SpaceX, Technology, Video, , ,

Inter-Continental Balistic Transport

From today’s SpaceX presentation (see previous post)

“Fly to most places on Earth in under 30 mins and anywhere in under 60. Cost per seat should be about the same as full fare economy in an aircraft. Forgot to mention that.” ~ Elon Musk via twitter

 

This will revolutionize travel.

This is how SpaceX funds the Mars missions.

SpaceX OTV-5

History, News, Science, Space Travel, SpaceX, Technology, Video, Welcome to the Future, , , , ,

SpaceX launch of the US Air Force “minishuttle” Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) X-37B

Another successful launch and landing for Falcon 9. It is beginning to remind me of watching planes take off and land at the airport.

 

 

Side note: the contract to launch OTV-5 was awarded to SpaceX directly, without bid

SpaceX Press Kit

Academy

Economic Issues, finance, Food, News, Opinion, Social Issues, , ,

Like a scene from the sci-fi movies Arrival or Close Encounters of the Third Kind, National Guard Black Hawk and heavy twin-blade Chinook helicopters fly over my house inbound to and outbound from the Academy corporate headquarters that is adjacent to my subdivision. The top floor of the parking garage serves as a makeshift heliport. Other floors of the parking garage serve a sleeping areas for a variety of first responders, including Texas State Troopers, who have come in from all over the state. Elsewhere in the parking lots, the National Guard has established bivouac with tents, trucks, and communications equipment. Several fuel tankers are also deployed.

Academy Sports and Outdoors (http://www.academy.com/shop/en/store/company-info) is a sporting goods and outdoor equipment company headquartered in Katy Texas next to my subdivision. The first Academy store opened as a tire shop in San Antonio in 1938. It turned into a military surplus store, then began offering sports and outdoors equipment as it evolved into the present day Academy Sports + Outdoors. They have more than 230 stores in 16 states, supported by more than 23,000 team members throughout the South, Southeast, and Midwest. My next door neighbor is the director (manager) of one of the nearby stores. Several of their IT folks also live in my subdivision.

I recently spoke to one of their corporate accountants who estimated that Academy had already donated over a million dollars worth of supplies, equipment, and services to the ongoing Hurricane Harvey relief effort. The photos below attest to part of this contribution. In addition to providing lodging and logistics for first responders, the Academy corporate headquarters and distribution center has also opened their cafeteria to their guests providing both room and board. 

I am very proud to have Academy as my neighbor. If you live near an Academy store, stop by and thank them for the support they are giving the greater Houston area in this time of need.

View of the Academy headquarters from the south

 

View from the west (street view)




 
 One of the back parking lots

High and “Dry”

Cats, News, , ,

Still high and relatively dry. Street in front of house has drained. Some nearby stores have reopened. Hillary is napping comfortably in my lap.


 

CatBeard Manor and its surroundings are an island in the midst of the flood. As the rainfall dissipates things will only get better here.

HOWEVER – life in general will take a long time getting back to normal. In all directions away from us roads are closed due to flooding.  

Apple Map screen shots showing road closures.


 

Uh oh – Internet just went out. Uploading via my cellular data link …

Rising Water

News, ,

Nothing too sensational to report (thank God). House has developed a minor leak – drip – drip – drip. Street in front of house has flooded. Back yard is OK.





As I write this the rain has stopped. Some neighborhood kids are out barefoot in the street splashing around.

There are plenty of more sensational Houston flooding stories for those interested, but Catbeard Manor is so far so good.

Aftermath …

News, ,

Hurricane Harvey is now a tropical storm, but the rain continues unabated in many areas.


Fortunately Catbeard Manor remains high and (relatively) dry. We lost a few small limbs on our oak trees (alive and dead), but no other damage. A drive around the subdivision showed evidence of high water encroaching on a few lawns. Note the high water mark in the photo below.


The retention pond for our subdivision is brim full,


as is the creek that flows past our subdivision.


We were VERY lucky. Other folks downstream of us not so much. National news will continue to show Houston flooding for many days. My heart goes out to them.

NPR news on Houston flooding

Washington Post news on Houston flooding

List of Falcon 9 Launches

History, News, Science, Space Travel, Technology, Welcome to the Future, , , , , , ,

OK … somebody had to do it. The complete list of every Falcon 9 launch is on Wikipedia!

As of June 25, 2017

  • 37 launches
  • 2 failures (one in flight, one on the launch pad pre-flight)
  • 13 successful landings (8 droneship, 5 Landing Zone 1)
  • 2 resused Falcon 9 boosters (both of which re-landed successfully – one on droneship, the other at LZ-1)
  • 1 reused Dragon capsule

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_and_Falcon_Heavy_launches

 

So … compare this to the Blue Origin numbers also care of Wikipedia (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Origin)

  • 1 launch and crash landing of the New Shepard 1
  • 5 launches and landings of the same New Shepard 2 booster (up and down – no payload to orbit)

 

    Just sayin’

    80 Seconds

    History, News, Science, Space Travel, Technology, Video, Welcome to the Future, , , , ,

    Watch (almost) EVERY SpaceX Falcon 9 landing attempted … in 80 seconds 

    https://youtu.be/Gum4EVbg7_0

    And that doesn’t even count two back-to-back landings last week on an Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship (Atlantic AND Pacific) plus the landing at LZ-1 at the beginning of June. Oh … and don’t forget the May 1st landing at LZ-1. So that makes it 18 landings?

     

    See also

    https://contrafactual.com/2017/06/25/spacex-iridium-2/

    https://contrafactual.com/2017/06/23/bulgariasat-1/

    https://contrafactual.com/2017/06/13/yaf9lv/

    https://contrafactual.com/2017/06/07/crs-11-falcon-9-landing-close-up/

    https://contrafactual.com/2017/06/04/crs-11-falcon-9-landing/

    https://contrafactual.com/2017/05/01/best-footage-ever/

    SpaceX – Iridium 2

    News, Science, Space Travel, Technology, Video, Welcome to the Future, , , , ,

    And another successful launch and recovery – this time from Vandenburg CA (polar orbit). Back to back launch and landings.

    New titanium grid fins (as opposed to the original aluminum grid fins) for better heat tolerance.

     

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_spaceport_drone_ship (ASDS)

    http://www.teslarati.com/spacex-set-second-weekend-launch-new-titanium-grid-fins-tested/

    http://www.spacex.com/news/2017/06/24/iridium-2-press-kit

    BulgariaSat-1

    News, Opinion, Science, Space Travel, Technology, Video, Welcome to the Future, , , ,

    SpaceX does it again … relaunch and landing of another Falcon 9

    Falcon 9’s first stage for the BulgariaSat-1 mission previously supported the Iridium-1 mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base in January of this year. Following stage separation, Falcon 9’s first stage will attempt a landing on the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

    Link to the Press Kit

     

    Personal observation … I cannot believe the bozos who comment that this is all faked based on video dropouts. When I “watched” the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions live video was rare to non-existent after the initial live launch video.

    You go SpaceX!

    PS


    3rd Wave of E&P Software

    News, Science, Technology, , , ,

    Houston, TX, October 13, 2016 – Bluware Inc., Hue AS and Headwave Inc. will soon join forces to form the most capable and innovative organization in the field of geoscience and engineering software. The new company will boast more than 100 technology professionals spread across offices in Houston, Oslo, Paris and Vietnam.

    “Now is the time to move forward,” said Rick Jones, Bluware CEO. “We see major computing innovations in the form of Multicore Processing, GPUs, Cloud, IIoT, Analytics and Machine Learning. These new capabilities will drive the 3rd Wave of E&P software—bringing new solutions to current problems and empowering industry leaders to tackle a completely new range of challenges.”

    “Over the years the Industry has extracted great value from Nvidia technologies, but the GPU revolution has just begun. The full value of the GPU requires truly modern software architecture to enable interactive and intuitive workflows for rapid and more accurate decision making. We are delighted to see some of our best partners joining forces to extract and deliver more business value from our leading-edge technology investment,” said Paul Holzhauer, Director of Oil & Gas Segment for Nvidia.

    About BLUWARE

    Bluware is a software consulting firm focused exclusively on the upstream oil and gas industry. Founded in 1987, we have worked with the world’s leading operators to create software solutions that maximize the contribution of geoscience disciplines to the business of finding and producing oil. While many other consulting companies center their efforts on business operations, Bluware works with the people who drive the science behind the drilling. We are passionate about finding new ways to use computing technology in pursuit of a better well plan. Our software engineers understand the complex technical concepts involved in subsurface applications and data. Most importantly, we continuously strive to extend the impact of geoscience throughout the well lifecycle. For more information, visit http://www.bluware.com.

    About Hue AS

    Hue develops unique and tailored software and services to solve the most complex visualization and compute challenges for oil and gas E&P. Hue has developed HueSpace, the only software development toolkit created exclusively for E&P that combines exceptional data management, advanced compute capabilities, and state-of-the-art visualization into a single, easy-to-use toolkit, unified by a Core Engine. By working with Hue, oil companies can develop both in-house and commercial solutions that go far beyond what the market and users currently expect. For more information, visit http://www.hue.no.

    About Headwave, Inc.

    Headwave, Inc. is a US / Norwegian company, which aims to augment and ultimately replace the two preceding generations of geoscience software with the third wave geoscience software. The company is headquartered in Houston, TX with offices in Norway and Vietnam. The company recently introduced Headwave 3, the first Third Wave geoscience software product and Foundation for geoscience research, along with products for handling and interactive analysis of unlimited wide-azimuth datasets; stratigraphic and quantitative interpretation; pre- and post-stack interpretation and analysis; and velocity model building for domain conversion. The software is available on Windows or Linux, and takes full advantage of all compute resources (CPUs and GPUs). The Foundation provides fully documented APIs for geoscience and workflow R&D. For more information, visit http://www.headwave.com.

    • • •

    I usually don’t comment on technologies or companies related to my profession on this blog, but in this case I feel that the innovation that the merger/collaboration of these three companies brings to the table is worth commenting on. Just watch the four minute video below and realize that this type of data and performance can be accessed from the cloud. “[the] user only needs a browser … from anything … from an iPad, from a PC, from a Mac, wherever they are in the world.”

    From 2017 Rice Oil & Gas HPC Conference (March 15-16)

     

    This could well be a paradigm shift in oil & gas exploration. 

    Extant

    Internet, News, Opinion, Review, Science Fiction, Social Issues, Space Travel, Technology, Video

    Smart, sexy, intriguing sci-fi. Starring Halle Berry. Deep and multi-threaded. Well written and well acted.

    I’m watching it via AmazonPrime. You should watch it any way you can.

    http://m.imdb.com/title/tt3155320/

    On second thought don’t start watching it. You won’t be able to stop … and sleep will be a thing of the past.*

     

     

    * if you have the ability to binge-watch it as I am doing via AmazonPrime.

    Safety Break

    News, Rant, Social Issues, Stuff, Welcome to the Future

    Remember Adult Swim?

    No, not the one from Cartoon Network. The original adult swim of 10 minutes every hour at your local Home Owner’s Association (HOA) community pool. It was originally used to give the lifeguards a break and give adults the ability to swim laps without interference from the kids. 

    Today at my local pool, which I began attending to walk laps for exercise (32 laps = 1 mile*), we were told at 10 minutes before the hour that it was Safety Break and EVERYONE had to get out of the pool for 10 minutes. Apparently there was an age discrimination lawsuit filed (and won) in California against Adult Swim. Now HOAs across the country are avoiding Adult Swim for fear of lawsuit.

    I suggest they play Safety Dance during the Safety Break.

     

    * the swim lane section of our pool is 25 metres long … one lap is 50 metres, one mile is 1609 metres … do the math

    CRS-11 Falcon 9 Landing

    History, News, Science, Space Travel, Technology, Video, , , , , ,

    Yet another Falcon 9 landing (from yesterday June 3rd) at LZ-1. Note the arrival of the sonic boom just before landing. Starting to get routine (as it should). This was also the first re-use of a Dragon capsule (Woo Hoo). 

    For more info on LZ-1 see:

    For more on the CRS-11 mission see:

    Feels like the 60s again.

    1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion

    Film, History, Horror, News, Russia, Social Issues, Space Travel, Technology, Video, , ,

    Watching the PBS documentary Command and Control on NETFLIX as I type. 

    This is truly scary.  If the Hydrogen Bomb warhead had detonated all of Little Rock would have been incinerated and millions of additional people downwind would have died from the fallout.

    WATCH THIS DOCUMENTARY (Full YouTube version below)

    https://www.netflix.com/title/80107656

    http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/command-and-control/

    http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=2543

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Damascus_Titan_missile_explosion

     

    Thankfully an incident similar to this could never* happen today …

      

    * where is that sarcasm tag

    CRS-11 ISS Resupply

    News, Science, Space Travel, Technology, Welcome to the Future, , , , , , ,

    SCRUBBED DUE TO WEATHER 

    From http://www.spacex.com/webcast


       

    New milestones for SpaceX

    • First reflight of a Dragon capsule
    • Another re-landing of Falcon 9 booster at Landing Zone 1
    • 100th Launch from LC-39A

    Click to access crs11finalpresskit.pdf

    Launch windows:

    • Primary Thursday June 1 at 5:55pm EDT (21:55 UTC) 
    • Backup Saturday June 3 at 5:07pm EDT (21:07 UTC)

    Apple Support

    Apple, Essay, Internet, News, Opinion, Rant, Reblog, Technology, Welcome to the Future, , , ,

    Apple Support Rocks

    Saturday March 27 approximately 1:00 PM … sanity is restored

    It may be a while before this posts, that is, between now and when I finish it.

    In my previous post I commented: Arthur C. Clark once said that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” except when it f*ck$ up, then it is like a curse from Marie Laveau. (I added the Marie Laveau bit)

    Note: My friend also updated his iPhone 6s Plus and thought it went without a hitch. HOWEVER he just discovered that his App Store app is gone. He just called Apple Support and was told that he needed wipe his iPhone and and restore from scratch. Based on my experience there may be another approach but after three days of this I told him I would help him another day. That will be another blog post. UPDATE – my friend had set up Settings > General > Restrictions to turn off access to the App Store and that is why the App Store app disappeared. Sadly he only discovered this after resetting his phone to factory default … TWICE.

    Based on personal evidence I conclude that the iOS 10.3.2 upgrade is flawed. I now extremely reticent to upgrade my other devices. 

    Additionally I still don’t have all of my ringtones back. I now have most of them but not all. It may be less frustrating to just buy them again if I really want them. You see ringtones are entirely different from music or apps (or iBooks?) purchased from iTunes. Perhaps they are a throwback to the early days of cellphones. Ringtones cannot re-downloaded after purchase. It is a onetime thing. Backing them up requires syncing your iPhone to iTunes on a PC or Mac. I only got back the ones I did through the effort of upper level Apple iTunes Support.

    My problem with this entire debacle is that I am so spoiled when it comes to Apple. I expect these kinds of issues with Windows and Linux. With Apple I expect it to “just work”. It always has for me. This time – for me – it failed to “just work.”

    Anyway … back to Apple Support … throughout this entire ordeal every Apple Support person I have dealt with from Tier One to Upper Levels has been gracious, calm, and absolutely committed to resolving my issues. I don’t expect technology to function flawlessly at all times (Apple excluded – as I said I’m spoiled), but what do appreciate are companies dedicated to having happy customers. Apple certainly qualifies in this regard. Attention Tim Cook – you should be very proud of your support team.

    Hell week continues

    Apple, Essay, Internet, News, Opinion, Rant, Technology, Welcome to the Future, , ,

    Oh for the good olde days 

     
    Maybe Jim Stafford had it right …

         Well, I think of that girl from time to time

         I call her up when I got a dime

    Or maybe a cocoanut telegraph?

    Arthur C. Clark once said that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” except when it f*ck$ up, then it is like a curse from Marie Laveau.

     •  •  •  •  • 

    Re-configuration continues slowly and methodically. Now I need to call Apple to figure out how to get all of my ring tones back. Mañana. I’m going to bed early tonight.