Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Supersonic Jet Airliner Tupolev TU-144 at the Airport in Moscow, USSR, 1969


In the background: Ilyushin Il-76T, Il-68, Tupolev Tu-154 and Antonov An-12.


Clark Gable and Ava Gardner, Mogambo, 1953


HMS Illustrious, USS Harry S Truman and USS Dwight D Eisenhower sailing through the deep waters of the Atlantic ocean. July 29th, 2007


Hawker Sea Hawk jets starting up their engines on a carrier


Bird under a UV light



Nightmarishly Dangerous


Alaska


Night refueling


Useful



Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Feast




Art in Steel


Shape Shifter?




Classic Tools




Freckles, they are good.


The Art of Speed


Turtleman - like Spiderman, but slower.


Ben and Jerry's get political with their ice cream, and provide conservative wags with the perfect raw material for mockery




The company's announcement, made without any self awareness, apparently: "Today we launch Pecan Resist! This flavor supports groups creating a more just and equitable nation for us all, and who are fighting President Trump’s regressive agenda."

Here's their tub swathed in political correctness

It's like she's asking you to "resist" buying that fattening, overpriced ice cream!
The mockery was immediate,


And only accelerated from there...





This is a good decision. Never abandon the little rover!

After a review of the progress of the listening campaign, NASA will continue its current strategy for attempting to make contact with the Opportunity rover for the foreseeable future. Winds could increase in the next few months at Opportunity's location on Mars, resulting in dust being blown off the rover's solar panels. The agency will reassess the situation in the January 2019 time frame.

The ultimate dump station


Serious cold weather gear



Effects of an earthquake on rail lines





The very definition of a close call


Monday, October 29, 2018

Bashicta-Nogueb (High Up In The Sky), Called Charles Sucker, Chippewa


Just needs one barnacle


Harihar is a hill fort, is situated near Trimbak in the Nashik district of Maharashtra in India.



Monday 1911


The stinger


And nine months later, there was a fine litter of Piper Cubs.


There's old, there's bold but no old, bold...


Willys Overland


Mortarsman Nikolai Polikarpov at the firing position near Kiev


Corsair after a hard landing


Feast


This snake looks like a dragon in a pile of gold. Smaug!

It's an Arabian Horned Viper


Sunday, October 28, 2018

Mondays, they're like that


You're next - run!


A great toy for kids big and small



Why Japan doesn't have their own Evil Knievel.


The last dust storm on Mars may have killed the Opportunity Rover

NASA expects to soon end efforts to contact the Opportunity Mars rover, silent for more than four months after a major dust storm, but will continue to listen for signals from the spacecraft for months to come.

Opportunity, which has been on Mars since January 2004, last contacted Earth June 10. A powerful globe-spanning dust storm blocked the sun and deprived the rover of solar power, putting it into a low-power mode.

On Sept. 11, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said that the optical depth, a measure of the haziness of Martian skies, had dropped to a level low enough to allow enough sunlight to reach the rover for it to generate power. At that point, controllers started an effort known as “active listening” where they transmitted commands to the rover in the event it was unable to revive itself and listened for any transmissions by the rover in response.

After more than a month, Opportunity has not responded to those commands, and that active listening effort will soon end. “We intend to keep pinging Opportunity on a daily basis for at least another week or two,” said Lori Glaze, acting director of NASA’s planetary science division.



While the dust storm moderated temperatures, the return of clear skies means sharp drops in temperature each night. “The batteries may be getting too cold, and that may be too much for the little rover.