Tuesday, January 29, 2019
Can't have too many rocket engine factories
Blue Origin held a groundbreaking ceremony in Huntsville, Alabama, Jan. 25 to formally mark the start of construction of a factory that will be used for building BE-4 engines. The company announced plans to build the factory there in June 2017, contingent on the selection of the engine by United Launch Alliance for its Vulcan rocket. ULA picked the BE-4 in September 2018.
The factory, scheduled for completion in March 2020, will build dozens of BE-4 engines a year for both Vulcan as well as Blue Origin's own New Glenn vehicle. Both rockets are scheduled to make first launches in 2021. Vulcan will use two BE-4 engines in its first stage while New Glenn's reusable first stage will be powered by seven BE-4 engines.
One of a kind
This four-story, 22-room, 8,000-square-foot castle for sale for $900,000 in the Nevada desert is one wild home.
"In a lot of ways, it's a 'doomsday prepper' dream home...extremely self-sustaining, secure and — admittedly — quite odd," Jake Rasmuson, who is marketing the property, tells CNBC Make It.
"Basically this property is an enormous, privately owned fortress with 16-inch-thick concrete walls and self-sustained energy systems using solar and wind, and with a 4,000-gallon water storage/rain catchment system. It's located in the middle of the Nevada desert, and the owner has added two enormous, vintage pipe organs which resonate through the halls. Makes me think of Captain Nemo playing the organ in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Or Nero fiddling.
Still, I wonder how well it would all work after the North Korean EMP blast.
The Hard Luck Castle was constructed between 2000 and 2012 with engineering that is designed to last 400 to 500 years, according to the property listing. It's made of steel, concrete, cinder block and glass. More than seven tons of rebar and 24,000 bricks were used to build the castle, according a website about the structure.
One of two pipe organs. Imagine playing that during a wild desert thunderstorm!
This part actually looks quite nice.
Monday, January 28, 2019
Slava!
Which I believe means glorious. And, glorious the original Soviet space program was.
History's first satellite, first man in space, first woman in space, first spacewalk.
They've kinda fallen behind since, though.
Nice fire yesterday
I'm going to miss these. The Redding place just has a gas fireplace, which I guarantee you I'll never turn on. No crack or pop, no need to tend and poke.
Like I told the LT, next I'll need to see if I can find a cabin within reasonable driving distance with a real wood burner, so at least intermittently I can get my fix.
Sunday, January 27, 2019
Straight Razor
Ebay produced this Erik Anton Berg straight, with a really nice "Swedish Mackerel" etch on the blade (it's Eriks trademark, and it's supposed to be a shark).
I got out my Arkansas stones and strop this afternoon, and in a surprisingly short time got it
so sharp is would effortlessly plow up a wave of hair off my arm, leaving a smooth path behind. Now my arm looks a little weird.
A better picture of the etch.
I'll be using this one to shave this week.
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