Category Archives: Science/Engineering

Climate Czar of Mars

Posted on February 18, 2012 | Comments Off on Climate Czar of Mars

The usual shrill babble and punchy trailer clips are flogging John Carter, Disney’s remake of Edgar Rice Burrough’s 1917 novel Princess of Mars, but it looks like a kiddie combo of Hercules and Avatar.

The bad guys burn coal, you see, and are damaging the Martian atmosphere. Uh oh. John Carter is a Confederate soldier mysteriously transported to Mars. There he engages in a lot of sword play, some love scenes steamy enough for 14-year-old boys, and I’ll bet more than a few ecology speeches about sustainability and global warming. Face palm.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Civil War, Science/Engineering, Space, Weather/Climate

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Scott’s good cancer news

Posted on February 15, 2012 | Comments Off on Scott’s good cancer news

Valentine’s was an especially nice day for my old blog buddy and Web master Scott Chaffin of San Antonio:

“The docs say that the chemo has achieved it’s goal and stabilized the tumor, so it’s shrunk “a considerable amount” and isn’t growing any more. There’s been no spread of cancer (or metastasis) to other parts of my beat-to-hell body.

“And a rib, what was broken about a year ago, and was a spot of concern — the lesion there has shrunk, which could be normal healing or the chemo killing cancer…don’t know, can’t know really. So, I am getting a 90 day stay from more treatment, [while] hopefully, I can start regaining strength and some capacity for doing something besides sitting on my tukus.”

Meanwhile, he’s looking forward to seeing whether the Rangers’ new $107.7 million Japanese pitcher, Yu Darvish, will be able to help get them back in the World Series—where third time just may be the charm for the boys from Arlington. Unless Darvish sucks, as most transitioning Japanese players have.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Science/Engineering, Texana

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Rick on Obozo’s veto of the pipeline

Posted on February 13, 2012 | Comments Off on Rick on Obozo’s veto of the pipeline

“President Obama simply caved to the more radical activist elements of his base who almost immediately decided they would vigorously oppose Keystone, regardless of the U.S. State Department’s conclusion that it would be one of the safest pipeline systems in the United States.”

It’s good to see Gov. Perry is not sullenly nursing his embarrassing loss, but is still kicking where it counts—to the seat of the pants of the Great Divider.

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Posted in Obamalot, Science/Engineering, Texana

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Shock diamonds

Posted on February 12, 2012 | Comments Off on Shock diamonds

SpaceX’s new rocket motor (for propulsive landings, just like the ones in the scifi stories) has “shock diamonds” in its plume. The phenom was first seen in the 1950s in the exhaust plume of the Bell X-1, the first craft to fly faster than the speed of sound. The “diamonds” are more visible in this video of the motor’s recent test firing (below) in McGregor, Texas, just up the road from the rancho.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Science/Engineering, Space, Texana

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From an airbag glitch to a new clutch

Posted on February 11, 2012 | Comments Off on From an airbag glitch to a new clutch

So I finally took the Honda in to let the dealer check on a recall alert I got in the mail last week saying the trigger on the driver’s airbag was so faulty that it might cause injury or even death. Mine.

Nothing like the prospect of hanging to concentrate the mind.

Harmless, the dealer concluded after a brief check, but, oh, by the way…

They replaced the clutch for $1,500. If I didn’t know that I had a bad habit of resting my left foot on the clutch pedal (“riding the clutch,” it is called, though it was never this bad), I’d suspect the recall alert was a dodge all along.

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Posted in Rancho Roly Poly, Science/Engineering

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Contrails

Posted on February 1, 2012 | Comments Off on Contrails

Driving Mr. B. to his scout meeting last night, I was startled when he suddenly said “Wow!” and pointed at the sky.

It was just after dusk and the sky was still bright enough to illuminate a dense crosshatching of airliner contrails (condensed water vapor) overhead—east, west, north and south. ‘Twas a busy evening up there, apparently.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Science/Engineering, Weather/Climate

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No global warming for 15 years

Posted on January 30, 2012 | Comments Off on No global warming for 15 years

Take that, Gorebot, Obozo, et al. Find your tax revenue somewhere else.

Not that they’ll notice. They’re still singing the “CO2 causes global warming and the science is settled” refrain.

Maybe when the glaciers move as far south as Chicago and, then, Tennessee. Ya think?

Via Instapundit.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Obamalot, Science/Engineering, Weather/Climate

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