Wave Goodbye

A large wave engulfing a light house.

Gravity and Water

Making History - One Landing at a Time

The Apollo 16 Lunar Module (LM) approaches the Command and Service Module (CSM) Casper in lunar orbit, after three successful days on the lunar surface, on April 23, 1972.

The Curiosity Rover descends down to the Martian surface by parachute, August 6th, 2012.

All on One Planet

Seeing it All at Once

The Grand Canyon from space. Quite a haunting image isn't it? Someday everyone will get to see this.

Alternative Endings

Who says we have to pollute into oblivion? The world's largest solar plant is about to start up in 2013 in the Mojave desert in the US.

Well, Well, Wellington

This is the Vickers Wellington. It was designed in the mid-1930s and entered production in 1936. It was the only British bomber to be produced all through the war. It was used as a night bomber early in the war but later replaced by four-engined bombers, so it was adapted for a number of different activities.

One reason for the popularity of the aircraft was the construction. It used an aluminum lattice covered in wood with a doped-fabric skin. Because of the design, large sections of the aircraft could be blown apart and the plane would still be intact. It was fairly common to see Wellingtons coming back with amounts of damage that would take other aircraft down. There are quite a few interesting stories about this:

"In one case, a German Bf 110 night-fighter attacked a Wellington returning from an attack on Münster, Germany, causing a fire at the rear of the starboard engine. Co-pilot Sergeant James Allen Ward climbed out of the fuselage in flight, kicked holes in the doped fabric of the wing for foot and hand holds to reach the starboard engine, and physically smothered the burning upper wing covering. He and the aircraft returned home safely, and Ward was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions."

Also, it was fairly fast to construct. As evident by how some Vickers factory workers broke a world record:

"As a propaganda and morale boosting exercise, in October 1943 workers at the Vickers Broughton factory gave up their weekend to build Wellington number LN514 against the clock. The bomber was assembled in new world record time of 23 hours 50 minutes, and took off after 24 hours 48 minutes, beating the previous record of 48 hours set by an American factory in California. The bomber was usually built within 60 hours. The effort was filmed for the Ministry of Information, forming the basis of a newsreel Worker's Week-End, broadcast in Britain and America."

Another great thing about the construction is it was very light for its size, so the range and payload was very good compared to aircraft of similar sizes.

After the Wellington was replaced by heavier aircraft, the planes were converted for other uses. In this slightly damaged photograph, we see a Wellington with a magnetic ring for detonating magnetic mines.

This Wellington has anti-submarine radar masts mounted on it. While it couldn't be used as a bomber, it became very valuable in other roles.

Overall I would rate the Wellington as one of the best bombers of the war, as well as an all-round great airplane.

BSG: Blood and Chrome; Finally What We've Been Waiting For

So I watched Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome last night. I have to say, I'm pretty impressed, and excited. I watched the re-done Battlestar Galactica that came out a few years ago, and while it was a fantastic show, it could have used a bit more blowing up robots and a little less sleeping around (anyone who watched it will understand that last part). The visual effects were fantastic, and it presented a very gritty and believable show (at least regarding the spacecraft and the physics, maybe not so much the story). Then a little while after that ended, a spin-off called Caprica came out. It was about the back story of the father of the Galactica's commander. It went in a totally different direction than the original BSG, showing the origins of the Cylons. However, the show got canceled a few seasons in and it seemed as if fans would never get to see the first Cylon war.

Well, enter Blood and Chrome. This time, we see William Adama (the future commander of the Galactica) as a fresh rookie pilot thrown into a rather old and unpopular war. It's a fun, funny, exciting, and action packed chapter in the Battlestar Galactica saga.

I'm providing a link to YouTube where you can find it. I suggest you take some time and watch it now!

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Random Photos

This is just a bunch of photos that I've collected in my upload folder that I haven't really been able to use and they've just been sitting there. This, obviously, is a bunch of Mustangs (a name for wild horses for those of you who think it's just a car). The population of Mustangs in the United States has gone down, but there are still some left. In fact, when I was in Big Bend national park a few months ago I saw some on the banks of the Rio Grande.

This, if you can't tell, is a swamp. I've never actually been to one, and I would like to go. Swamps are very interesting and diverse ecosystems.

And this is (I believe) and IS-3. I could be wrong though, because I'm not too keen on late 1940's Russian tanks. However, it's not a tank I would want to mess with.

This is a photo I found a while back and found quite humorous. It's some 1960's astronauts taking a break. I would love to figure out who the artist is.

This is just a cool flock of birds.

And this is a picture I thought was very interesting. These are weapons captured by US forces in Iraq. It's amazing the kinds of weapons still used today. You can see everything from new FN FALs and RPG-7s all the way to junky AKs, M1895 Mannlicher rifles, old Mausers, and even a Chinese pellet gun. What this shows is the enemies we've been fighting are not that well equipped.

Mountain Lakes

If no one has been able to tell, I kinda like mountains. Especially mountain lakes.

I think liking mountain lakes has come from living in the Texas hill country. We have hills here, but no mountains. And we also have no water (well there are a few "lakes" and "rivers").

Movement

One thing I love is taking pictures that show movement (something I'm not very good at sadly). The photographs seem much more dynamic and interesting.

Later War German Armor

Porsche-designed Elefant (Ferdinand) tank destroyers in the factory still under construction. Despite having an incredibly powerful gun and very thick frontal armor, the lack of any machine guns caused the Ferdinand to be a total flop. There are two left; one in the Moscow tank museum captured at Kursk, and one in Maryland at the Army Ordinance museum captured at Anzio.

Some Panzer IV's in the Russian winter. They have the upgraded skirt armor around the turret, but none next to the tracks yet.

More Panzer IV's in Russia. Again with the skirt armor around the turret and plenty of extra tread thrown on. They've been traveling as indicated by the muzzle covers.

Panzerjäger V 8,8 cm PaK 43/3 L/71 - also known as the Jagdpanther Sd. Kfz. 173. Armed with 88mm guns, they were a force to be reckoned with. Seen here on the steppes of Russia, probably spring/summer 1944.

Tiger tanks in France 1943. By the time they entered service in 1943 they were almost obsolete because of things like the Panther and the Tiger II. However, they still proved to be very effective tanks and are widely recognized.

Line of Sight

"Recognized since antiquity and depicted on the shield of Achilles according to Homer, stars of the Hyades cluster form the head of the constellation Taurus the Bull. Their general V-shape is anchored by Aldebaran, the eye of the Bull and by far the constellation's brightest star. Yellowish in appearance, red giant Aldebaran is not a Hyades cluster member, though. Modern astronomy puts the Hyades cluster 151 light-years away making it the nearest established open star cluster, while Aldebaran lies at less than half that distance, along the same line-of-sight. Along with colorful Hyades stars, this stellar holiday portrait locates Aldebaran just below center, as well as another open star cluster in Taurus, NGC 1647 at the left, some 2,000 light-years or more in the background. Just slide your cursor over the image to identify the stars. The central Hyades stars are spread out over about 15 light-years. Formed some 800 million years ago, the Hyades star cluster may share a common origin with M44 (Praesepe), a naked-eye open star cluster in Cancer, based on M44's motion through space and remarkably similar age."

Memories of Ice and Ions

"Comet Hale-Bopp, the Great Comet of 1997, became much brighter than any surrounding stars. It was seen even over bright city lights. Away from city lights, however, it put on quite a spectacular show. Here Comet Hale-Bopp was photographed above Val Parola Pass in the Dolomite mountains surrounding Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. Comet Hale-Bopp's blue ion tail, consisting of ions from the comet's nucleus, is pushed out by the solar wind. The white dust tail is composed of larger particles of dust from the nucleus driven by the pressure of sunlight, that orbit behind the comet. Observations showed that Comet Hale-Bopp's nucleus spins about once every 12 hours. A comet that may well exceed Hale-Bopp's peak brightness is expected to fall into the inner Solar System next year."

I actually remember seeing Hale-Bopp when I was a little kid. I was riding into town in my parent's Chevrolet Suburban and I remember looking at the sky out of the window and seeing it up there. Back then it had very little meaning to me. It was just something in the sky. Now that memory is a very cherished one for me.

Motivation to Follow Your Heart

- Steve Jobs

Artistic Explorations - Artistic Expectations

Just a collections of artistic creations that I find interesting. Like this city-space station. Artificial gravity provided by spinning. Not a bad idea, but with some problems (explored in the series Babylon 5).

Or this bustling metropolis, complete with super highways and literal skyscrapers - and no smog.

Another spinning city - this time in the atmosphere of a planet.

Peaceful river in an interesting solar system.

The ISV Venture Star from the movie Avatar. Honestly, this was my favorite part of the movie. It was a seconds-long explanation of what interstellar vehicles might look like. It's a style that I call "21st Century". Lots of skeleton framework and artificial gravity coupled with enough speed to actually go somewhere.

More literal skyscrapers. I seriously think this will be the way of the future. Rockets will only be useful for a while, then we need more permanent, heavier-lift means of carrying materials and people into space.

Another "21st Century" spacecraft. This time more of a space station.

A foreign solar system.

Maybe someday these won't have to be artistic creations and can be actual photographs. We just have to keep pushing into the future. We have to ring a new age, a new era.

Cold Advance

American armor during the Battle of the Bulge.

Exponential Development

Mist

Places I Would Want to Wake Up and See

Two of Four

In this rather interesting photograph we see two interesting vehicles. The most obvious, of course, is the Me 323 Giant powered glider (of which one was recently discovered fairly intact at the bottom of the Mediterranean). Only a few thousand of the French-engined monsters were made.

And then there's the other vehicle. It's a Marder II. You may have seen many photos of Marder III's and IV's (based of Czech Pz38(t) chassis), and maybe a few Marder I's (based off the PzI chassis). This, if you can't tell, is based off the Panzer II. Why you hardly see photos of them is because only a few hundred were made. Why? Well another extremely successful vehicle, the Wespe 105mm mobile artillery vehicle, was based off of the Panzer II chassis. Because the Wespe was so successful, all Panzer II chassis production (and all the surviving tanks too) were made into them.

Iceberg

Well, I think it counts. About 90% of its mass is below the surface of the water.....