June 3rd landing close up

June 3rd landing close up
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.
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
Alternatively, dial (303) 499-7111 or tune your shortwave radio to two-point-five, five, ten, fifteen, twenty, and twenty-five megahertz.
My newest diversion … watching Death in Paradise on NETFLIX. British TV. Murder mystery. Crime solving. Humor.
A British inspector is transferred to Saint-Marie’s police department, but he hates the sun, sea, and sand. The series follow his investigations into murders on the island.
Actually the reviews below aren’t that favorable and include spoilers … but I am only on the second episode and I am enjoying it so far. I guess all shows eventually run their course.
Watch it if you can … (or not)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_in_Paradise_(TV_series)
Five years in the making – from PALETTE-SWAP NINJA
Love Star Wars? Love the Beatles?
You’re gonna LOVE this …
http://www.paletteswapninja.com/
Tracks 1 & 2 “Princess Leia’s Stolen Death Star Plans” / “With Illicit Help From Your Friends”
Track 3 “Luke is in the Desert”
Track 4 “Never Better”
Track 5 “Imperial Holes”
Track 6 “He’s Leaving Home”
Track 7 “Being From the Spaceport of Mos Eisle”
Track 8 “The Force Within You”
Track 9 “AA Twenty-Three”
Track 10 “Dianoga”
Track 11 “Keep Moving Keep Moving”
Tracks 12 & 13 “Reprise/A Day in the Life of Red Five”
If you liked it, PLEASE consider tipping them at the link below
Did I say “papers?” I meant “permits.”
I generally try to keep this blog as apolitical as possible … but “I’m angry as hell an not going to take it any more.” Below is but one example of a nationwide epidemic.
Armed Agents Raid Park, Destroy Food, Seize Food Carts — Over Improper Permitting
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/food-raid-armed-agents/
Excerpts below …
Government agents have again let their true colors shine, in a latest attempt to fight one of the most pernicious and brutal crimes embattling far too many communities across the nation — a lack of permit.
…
These fearless agents of the State, peace officers, not only seized the food supposedly so in need of a permit, they dumped punch into storm drains and confiscated coolers, tables, chairs, canned soda, and literally everything in the vendors’ possession — the entire raid, captured on Facebook Live video.
…
Ironically-monikered peace officers claimed without elaborating or providing specific details on the video they’d received complaints — but the outpouring of support from the public and church communities, as well as outrage over the raid, did not evince any complainants relieved to see the picnicking quashed.
…
From diligent street vendors offering tasty bites to kids’ offering family-recipe lemonade to parched passersby, one thing has been made abundantly clear — permitting is out of control.
Permits are the government’s way of bilking people of money under the petulant guise of public safety — but the truth about permitting is much simpler and infinitely less benign.
‘You aren’t allowed to profit unless I get my cut,’ is what the State really says when Mexican food vendors, flood victims, little girls, and countless others receive fines and tickets — or have their possessions confiscated — due only to lack of permit.
That the Sacramento food vendors didn’t shirk legal responsibilities and had applied for the necessary permits when cops seized their wares again proves the issue has little to do with the permit, itself, and everything to do with an unreasonable government running roughshod on all of us.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
As it always has been …
It’s all about the Benjamins
Read the entire article at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/food-raid-armed-agents/
Or Blue Origin vs SpaceX*
Note the dates of the quotes and video clips
Props to Jeff Besos and Blue Origin for effort … but seriously?
* compare to Soapbox Derby vs NASCAR
From another view
I can’t get enough of this stuff …
The video below does an excellent job of explaining exactly how the Falcon 9 survives re-entry
The heat of re-entry is due to the compression of the atmosphere ahead of the re-entering vehicle, NOT air friction. Think of a diesel engine that works by highly compressing the air in the cylinder above the ignition temperature of the diesel fuel which is then injected at maximum compression and temperature.
Credit XKCD
Check this out …
I am replaying the video for your convenience
Falcon 9 first stage by the numbers
Speed of sound = 343 m/s
Max speed on ascent = 1685 m/s (Mach 4.9 @ 68 km)
Max altitude (apogee) = 166 km
Max speed on descent = 1407 m/s (Mach 4.1 @ 65km)
Stage separation (2:47) to touchdown (9:24) = 6m 37s
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Go back and rewatch the video while paying close attention to SPEED and ALTITUDE
The Falcon 9 first stage trajectory is quite interesting …
SpaceX – Landing Zone 1 (land) vs Autonomous Spaceport Drone Ship (sea)
Why??? The following video (not by me) explains it all.
For the BEST EVER footage of a Falcon 9 landing see my previous post.
SpaceX – today’s launch and landing. Fourth return to Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral. SpaceX makes this look easy!
Wow
This looks promising* …
“Titan Note: Change The Way You Take Notes”
* if it works as advertised (I have ordered one and will report back when it arrives)
I really should have commented on this sooner
Kids graduating from high school today have never known a world without cell phones … or the instant gratification of digital photography. I remember once reading an article a long time ago that said that cameras were becoming so small and cheap that there was no reason not to put them in everything. Cell phones were the logical beneficiary. Now everyone has a camera on them at all times. If Big Foot were real, someone would have gotten an HD video of her by now.
Photographers … professional and amateur … had to wait for film to be chemically developed in order to see the results. It could takes days before you saw the results. Film often had had to be sent out for processing. The arrival of onsite same-day processing was a big deal.
From my post Welcome to the Future
My favorite was a slide film call Kodachrome made by Eastman Kodak. So popular and high quality was this film that Paul Simon (formerly of Simon & Garfunkle) released a song about it. Kodachrome processing involved a variety of toxic chemicals and was discontinued in 2009, but its color saturation and time stability are legendary. I still have Kodachrome slides that are gorgeous even as other slides and prints have faded to red (and the lubricants in my slide projector have turned to glue rendering it useless). I keep planning to get these digitally scanned, but it’s not cheap for high quality scans and something always comes up that diverts the funds. I would like to get them scanned and begin posting then here someday.
When not shooting Kodachrome slides I (like most everyone else) shot print film. This involved a roll of film with a “negative” image that was developed and then used to create enlarged color prints. One dropped off the film for processing and the came back to pick up the prints and negatives.
Never knowing if any of my photos had turned out, I would take my roll of film down to the local photomat or camera store to have it developed. Invariably on the way out I would begin humming the first few bars of …
Bonus track …
House
I am watching the series Grand Designs on NETFLIX. The County Derry 2014 episode is about a “young farmer and architect in Northern Ireland [who] hopes to make a home out of four large shipping containers welded together to form a giant cross.”
Note: in the YouTube video I found (below) the audio is a bit sped up and the image is reversed left to right … but you get the idea. (Yes, yes, I know that that the Irish and the Brits drive on the “other side” of the road from us Yanks, but that is NOT the reason that the image is reversed)
If you like architecture and love gorgeous homes you should try to catch this series!
For more images of Patrick Bradley’s Shipping Container House CLICK HERE
Check out https://contrafactual.com/2013/08/28/norwegian-π-rat/
Q: What do you call a Norseman who does not eat meat?
A: Norvegan
Also check out https://contrafactual.com/2014/03/24/bad-greek-letter-puns/
FIRST https://contrafactual.com/2017/03/01/islands-of-the-future/
THEN https://contrafactual.com/2017/03/01/islands-of-the-future-madiera/
NOW – Orkney
If you have you have access to NETFLIX watch Islands of the Future
http://www.emec.org.uk/about-us/wave-clients/pelamis-wave-power/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelamis_Wave_Energy_Converter
Sadly, Pelamis Wave Power is defunct
Second verse … same as the first
Wind power + pumped hydro
https://contrafactual.com/2017/03/01/islands-of-the-future/
SpaceX to send two paying customers around the moon next year
Blue Origin’s got nuthin’ on this
The image below is a screen capture from one the videos in the previous post on today’s SpaceX CRS-10 launch.
Life comes full circle. In a much earlier post I described what it was like to be standing at the water’s edge in the foreground at the last ever Saturn V launch.
On launch day I was one of the throng of people standing to the left of the countdown clock in the picture above.
The SpaceX image inspired me to search the Internet and YouTube for Skylab launch images. I scored big time. The second image is screen shot from the video below. Back in the day I had a fetish for white jeans (probably expressing my inner John Lennon). Trust me – I am in there somewhere.
Full video from 1973
The Internet is amazing. Welcome to the future.
Links
https://contrafactual.com/2013/07/20/apollo-11-main-engines-found/
SpaceX successfully launches CRS-10 from LC-39A | Falcon 9 first stage lands at LZ-1
Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Airforce Station
Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A, the southern most of the two most northerly pads) with SpaceX modifications
Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1 formerly LC-13 midway down ICBM road )
LC-39A launch
Aerial view of LZ-1 landing
Full coverage with some SpaceX provided historical clips
Links
Aerial snapshots from Apple Maps (TOMTOM)
Welcome to the Future – the revolution will be Tweeted
This is an old video, but still interesting to watch.
Published on Oct 23, 2013 | The Mac Pro is a computer unlike any we have ever created. To build it, we pioneered new processes, innovated manufacturing techniques, and essentially rethought how to make a computer. This is the story of how it all comes together.
Cool …
The Kin
The Kin did several songs for the movie Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. Take in the Sunlight plays during the final minutes of the movie and through the ending credits. It is an anthem for anyone striving to take back control of their life and their health.
Buy the album for $4.99. https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/diamonds/id455086398
Live well …
Sci-Fi Short Film “2084” presented by DUST
Made me laugh …
“2084” by Taz Goldstein
In the year 2084, the fate of mankind will rest in the hands of a total moron.
When I brought my Prius into Toyota last week, my service writer and I got into a discussion of diet, and health, and weight loss. I told him about the Wahls Protocol and our need to eat lots of fruits and vegetables. He asked me if I had ever see Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. “Oh, man, you have got to watch this,” he told me while pulling it up on his computer. “Unfortunately,” he warned me, “it has become an infomercial for the Breville Juicer and Joe Cross’s Reboot Program.” My only comment way was that juicing removed all the fiber, while acknowledging that physically eating all the fruits and vegetables recommended by the Wahls Protocol was daunting.
I stopped by Toyota today for a status update and learned that the battery pack was still in shipment, due to arrive this week. I also decided that before I saw my service writer again that I was going to watch Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. I watched it on NETFLIX. When I began researching it for this blog post, I found the full version on YouTube (below). It is absolutely worth watching.
Keep in mind the whereas the movie focuses on juicing, the most important takeaway should be that we need to shift our diets away from fast foods and processed foods toward diets rich in a broad spectrum of fruits and vegetables. Personally, I am impressed by the weight loss depicted in the movie. It gives me hope.
Next – a double feature from back in the day (circa 2005 – 2006) …
Straight outta H-Town to Lynwood
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Chamillionaire – Ridin’ ft. Krayzie Bone
Weird Al Yankovic – White & Nerdy (Official Video) ft. Donny Ozmond
It’s real yo
In a previous post, The Next Best Thing, I told you how I found out about Juice Plus+.
One of the ladies asked me if I had ever heard of Juice Plus+.
I answered that hadn’t. She gave me her business card and some brochures. I studied the list of fruits and vegetables that Juice Plus+ Orchard, Garden and Vineyard Blends are comprised of and realized that it was everything I had been striving to eat enough of. I have included the nutrition labels below (tap on each to enlarge).
Orchard Blend
Garden Blend
Vineyard Blend
Note the NSF certification label. I did. Check them out HERE. Also note the Kosher certifications.
Long story short, I placed an order. The Mrs and I have been taking the Orchard, Garden and Vineyard Blends for a few months now as part a healthier diet and lifestyle. I like the ability to get a wide spectrum of fruit and vegetable micronutrients and oxidants in a convenient capsule form (they also offer chewable versions). With Juice Plus+ we actually manage to eat the fruits and vegetables we do buy.
I am the original sceptic. I live by the old Russian axiom adopted by Reagan in dealing with Gorbachev – trust, but verify – so I did some additional research. The efficacy of Juice Plus+ has been documented in more than 30 Juice Plus+ research studies conducted in leading hospitals and universities around the world. But that is for another post.
For now, in the spirit of a (moving) picture is worth a thousand words, I give you three short videos.
How Juice Plus+ is Made
Published on Dec 31, 2013 | Juice Plus+ Vice President, John Blair, shares how Juice Plus+ is made. From being picked at the peak of ripeness to the proprietary drying and encapsulation process. See it all!
Behind the Scenes at a Juice Plus+ Farm
Published on Oct 28, 2014 | Take a look at what happens when we’re filming footage at one of our beautiful farms.
Juice Plus+ Farm to Capsule
Published on Apr 23, 2014 | Hear Meredith Martin, Juice Plus+ Director of Marketing Support, and Liza Pepple, Juice Plus+ Director of Supply Chain, talk parsley. Then stick around to hear Juice Plus+ growers share how they ensure good, quality produce goes into all Juice Plus+ products.
Interested in learning even more about Juice Plus+? Look HERE
Originally published on Jan 16, 2017 | NASA Commentator Kyle Herring talks with Kathy Lueders, the manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, about the status of efforts to develop commercial space vehicles to deliver human crew members to the International Space Station. NASA is working with Boeing and SpaceX as those companies work through milestones to get their vehicles, Boeing’s CST-100 and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, ready for their first crewed flights to the station, while the space station program is reconfiguring the station and preparing for spacewalks to install the new International Docking Adapters to which the new commercial spacecraft will dock.
Although YouTube states that the above video was published this month, I suspect that it was actually recorded two years ago in mid-June 2015. Reason being that reference was made in the video (@6:20) of the upcoming launch of the International Docking Adapter (IDA-1). However IDA-1 was lost during the launch failure of SpX CRS-7 on June 28, 2015. (Reference https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Docking_Adapter)
Additionally the Crew Dragon Pad Abort occurred in May of 2015.
Elon Musk and SpaceX aren’t the only ones with their “eyes on the prize” of replacing the Shuttle for commercial U.S manned space launches. Boeing has unveiled a new streamlined light-weight space suit for it astronauts to wear aboard its CST-100 “Space Taxi”.
See also my post Bras In Space, the story of the Apollo spacesuit
Compare and contrast the Boeing CST-100 to the SpaceX Crew Dragon (aka Dragon V2)
In a previous post I told you about Terry Wahls and the Wahls Protocol. Below is a 19 minute interview of Dr. Terry Wahls by Dr. Rhonda Patrick from 2014. In the interview they discuss the importance of micronutrients and antioxidants in the diet and the importance of eating a broad range of fruits and vegetables and the impact it had on Dr. Wahls life.
Are you eating enough fruits and vegetables? Consider Juice Plus+
Those of you who have followed this blog long enough know that my wife has suffered from Multiple Sclerosis since being diagnosed in the late 90s. It is the reason why the heroine of my serialized sci-fi novel The Nudist War (a new take on the Zombie Apocalypse) has MS.
In the spring of 2014, I posted about my discovery of the Wahls Protocol. The Wahls Protocol, like many other “paleo” diets was not unique. It was but the latest in a long line of “discoveries” that we are what we eat and that diets rich in fruits and vegetables, low in carbs, sugar, and processed foods go a long way toward preserving and even restoring health.
I documented our progress on the Wahls Protocol and have included links below. Go ahead and read them. Most are short. I’ll wait. I promise.
Good. You’re back.
If you read through each of the posts above, you saw how profound an impact a diet high in fruits and vegetables had on our health. If you didn’t bother to read through the posts above … I will summarize: we both saw a dramatic improvement in our quality of life.
HOWEVER – we both found it physically challenging to actually eat the amount of fruits and vegetables – and – drink the amount of water required. Not to mention that a diet that high in fruits and vegetables elevates the term “regularity” to a whole new meaning. By 2015 we had “fallen off the wagon”.
Fast forward to the fall of 2016 (last year). Our diet was poor once again – too much dining out and too much takeout. We had both gained weight and were not feeling our best. While having a late breakfast at the cafe nearest to my house, I eavesdropped on a conversation between several ladies sitting next to me. The topic had turned to the tribulations of dealing with a cancer diagnosis in a loved one. As I got up to leave, I stopped by and offered my support and best wishes. They asked me about my point of reference and I explained that my wife had MS and the road had been a rocky one. One of the ladies asked me what if anything we had done to deal with it other than the doctors, medicines, and hospitalizations. I went on to tell them about the Wahls Protocol, how we benefited from a diet high in fruits and vegetables, our difficulty in actually being able to eat as much as we needed, and our eventual return to our old unhealthy diet and way of life.
One of the ladies asked me if I had ever heard of Juice Plus+.
Are you eating enough fruits and vegetables?
My sister introduced me to this a while back. I downloaded the app and tried it a few times – then gave up. I started back up again last week. Over the weekend we (my wife and I) discovered that we had the audio book. My sister must have gifted it to me sometime in the past. We listened to it. I recommend you do the same. Andy is amazing. His approach to mindfulness is refreshingly modern, yet based on centuries old proven concepts of meditation.
I am already beginning to have a calmer mind after my 10-minutes-a-day sessions. My wife used Andy’s sleep meditation technique last night and got her first full night’s sleep in three days.
The Audio Book
Get it at Audible.com
Get the App
Be sure to visit the HEADSPACE website
I will leave you with one last video.
Very short – worth watching
I think I watched a cartoon version of this as a child in the 60s (?)
Found it
SpaceX, that is. With this weekend’s successful launch of 10 Iridium NEXT satellites, SpaceX sticks the landing.
Launch to landing
Just ran across this on INDIEGOGO. Looked interesting. You might agree.
95% of survival situations are resolved in 72 hours. But those first 72 hours are extremely critical. With this in mind, our kits are carefully curated to provide you everything you need, and nothing you don’t to get through those vital 3 days. We aren’t weighing you down with things you will never use, and we don’t sell you things that aren’t going to help. Just the essentials, organized so even the most inexperienced among us will have the tools and instructions to change their situation for the better. https://unchartedsupplyco.com/company/our-story
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-seventy2-the-world-s-smartest-survival-kit-backpack#/
Not long ago I posted that I had been gifted a vintage CHEMEX coffee carafe. After taking it apart and cleaning it, I foolishly attempted to recondition the leather thong that holds the wooden insulators together by soaking it in leather conditioner. When I tried to put it back together today the old thong disintegrated.
So I did what I should have just done in the first place. I drove to a nearby craft store and bought a length of new leather thong. The CHEMEX is now assembled. Filter paper had previously arrived from Amazon. A bag of whole bean “Christmas Blend” was obtained from the new Starbucks that opened up around the corner.
I followed the ritual as described below
Quite satisfactory … and satisfying.
SpaceX will be returning to flight on January 8th.
From http://www.spacex.com/news/2016/09/01/anomaly-updates
SpaceX is targeting return to flight from Vandenberg’s Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) with the Iridium NEXT launch on January 8. SpaceX greatly appreciates the support of our customers and partners throughout this process, and we look forward to fulfilling our manifest in 2017 and beyond.
In preparation for the next launch, we present for your enjoyment and enlightenment a series of videos summarizing the five year history of SpaceX Falcon 9 reusability.
Enjoy …
I never get tired of watching this. It 60s Sci-Fi realized at last.
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