This iron-plate landmark, which still stands though it’s inoperative and closed to the public, began operation in 1852. During the great hurricane that wrecked Galveston in 1900, more than a hundred people survived by crowding onto its spiral staircase to escape the tidal surge.
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Posted in Science/Engineering, Texana, Weather/Climate
…in 1855, one John Moses Browning was born in Ogden, Utah. A Mormon worth commemorating. No less than the patron saint of American firearms. His lever-action Winchester rifle won the West as much as the Colt .45.
His M1911A1 pistol is still in use (especially with the Texas Rangers), despite the Army’s official preference for the 9 mm Beretta. Moreover, JMB’s .50 cal, which was mounted in the wings and turrets of WW2 aircraft, still finds use as an anti-tank and anti-personnel weapon with most of the world’s armies. Happy Birthday, John.
Via The Fat Guy.
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Posted in Blogosphere, Science/Engineering, The War, Troops
Tagged .50-caliber machine gun, fifty cal, John Moses Browning, M1911A1, Ma Deuce
Hundreds of feet thick ice in the Himalayas has been under threat of melting for two years now from, what else, global warming. Now the United Nations is riding to the rescue. Their agency for “climate change” is, uh, reconsidering.
Seems they had zero proof after all. Just an old New Scientist clipping they liked. So they made it the centerpiece of their alleged “latest research” report in 2007. Now they’ve been caught out. Oops. Al Gore, call your publicist!
UPDATE: Why the mistake? A number of reasons, including a typo: “…predicted date for shrinkage of the world total from 500,000 to 100,000 km2 is 2350, not 2035.” More here. Hee.
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Posted in Science/Engineering, Weather/Climate
Tagged AGW, climate change, global warming, Himalayan glaciers, IPCC
Was thrilled to read that some folks are packing a DC-3 with relief supplies to ferry to Haiti. The venerable (75-year-old) transport (first one was named the “Flagship Texas”) was my favorite plastic model when I was a kid. I even have a new kit of one in the closet awaiting Mr. B.’s interest in such things. Well. Hoping. I last flew in one years ago in the Bahamas. It was painted pink. Flamingo Airlines, as I recall.
In Viet Nam 18,000-rpm mini-guns were mounted in their open cargo doors to support MACV advisory outfits like mine, a role now filled by the C-130. This outfit (making the semi-aerobatic, one-wheel landing above) teaches single-engine pilots to fly them. No, the DC-3 was never called the Gooney Bird. That was the Army Air Force’s C-47. But DC-3/C-47 is a distinction without (much of) a difference.
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Posted in Mr. Boy, Science/Engineering, South of the Border, Texana, The War, Viet Nam
Tagged "Flagship Texas", C-47, DC-3, Flamingo Airlines, Gooney Bird, MACV, Mini-Guns, Spooky
Or so it has seemed since sunspots began returning back in December. Too late, apparently, to hinder the Arctic cold snap that put much of the northern hemisphere in the deep freeze until recently.
If, that is, you accept the cosmic ray theory of climate change. Many scientists don’t. Meanwhile the sunwatchers among them also aren’t ready to declare the end of the solar minimum just yet. In the last few years, the sun has amply proved how little we know about its behavior.
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Posted in Science/Engineering, Space, Weather/Climate
Tagged cosmic ray theory of climate change, solar minimum, sunspots
This mystery object from space is expected to whiz by Earth at a distance of about 130,000 kilometers tomorrow. Scientists are stumped by the object, which is 33- to 50-feet wide at most. It’s catalogued as 2010AL30, a 10-meter class asteroid. But who knows. It might be our own space junk. Or an alien probe, perhaps. Even a scout ship? Photo seen from the Skylive-Grove Creek Observatory in Australia.
MORE: The Daily Astronomer speculates on what 2010AL30 could be
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Posted in Blogosphere, Science/Engineering, Scribbles, Space
Tagged 2010AL30, Skylive-Grove Creek Observatory, The Daily Astronomer
Wonderful tale, this hard scifi novel of the hard times of the planet Erin, whose Irish inhabitants came from a monocultural, multigeneration starship trek. I stayed up late finishing it. Did find it amusing that the back cover synopsis compared it to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped, when it’s obviously mimicking Treasure Island in most ways. Captain Shaker is a very credible Long John Silver and Jay Hara a Jack Hawkins in hard vacuum. It’s a great pity that physicist-author Charles Sheffield has passed on. He was a very entertaining story teller.
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Posted in Library, Science/Engineering, Space
Tagged Captain Dan Shaker, Charles Sheffield, Godspeed, Planet Erin, Spacers
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 