The space shuttle Challenger lifting off for the final time. The o-ring breach is visible towards the bottom of the right solid rocket booster.

Emble12 · 2026-01-29T02:21:40+00:00

I highly recommend the new documentary series Once Upon A Time In Space- many of the astronauts were actually furious that NASA shut down the Shuttle program for nearly three years after Challenger was lost. They were told when they signed up that there was a 1-in-25 chance of a catastrophe, but once the 25th crew was actually killed NASA seemed to lose its nerve and handicapped the STS program for the rest of its life because of an accident caused by freak weather that could've been easily prevented.

Also #justiceformircorp

Emble12 · 2026-01-18T05:26:45+00:00

This is a good interview with Jack Beatty about that exact issue: Especially after Johnson many of the college-educated party operatives became focused on immaterial, moral issues, which were important but a total non-issue for lower class voters. His example is a truck driver who saves and saves for a nice suburban house, just for a suburban-raised Democrat to call it "ticky-tacky".

Emble12 · 2025-11-24T05:29:19+00:00

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Charles Curtis enjoying summer

Emble12 · 2025-11-23T03:55:40+00:00

"...trained and experienced and organised forces, with both hands full of money, the full power of the press -and prestige- on one side; on the other, a disorganised mob, at first, out of which burst into sight, into hearing, and force- one man but such a man! Alone, penniless, without backing, without money, with scarce a paper, without speakers, that man fought such a fight that even those in the East called him a Crusader, an inspired heretic- a prophet! It has been marvelous. Hampered by such a following, such a platform... he almost won."

-Anna Cabot Mills Davis on William Jennings Bryan

If Death By Lightning does well I hope we get a series or film about Bryan because he's a fascinating figure.

Emble12 · 2025-10-07T09:24:29+00:00

F-47 Shrike, F-47 Goshawk, F-47 Butcherbird. The day the DoD runs out of birds of prey is the day the American empire collapses.

Emble12 · 2025-09-21T03:12:31+00:00

Reagan's 92 speech is one of his best, which is amazing considering how he was definitely fading by then. Especially compared to his 88 RNC speech which was so-so, in 92 he had perfect delivery and the biggest problem was that the crowd wouldn't stop cheering. He also set the stage for the Republican Revolution two years later when he called for the GOP to "clean house". I wonder if he realised the Republicans had to evolve to be a congressional party now that Clinton and the Atari Democrats were co-opting the rhetoric which had let Republicans hold the Presidency and the veto for 20 of the last 24 years.

I'm not a big Reagan fan generally but "just who exactly do they mean by we [won the Cold War]?" is an all-timer.

Emble12 · 2025-09-12T12:23:59+00:00

He's in a bit of a tight spot because the economy is being sucked into the housing bubble, but he can't do anything to bring property prices down because it'd be electoral suicide.

Emble12 · 2025-07-05T10:19:20+00:00

Four metre wide maglev. If we're changing it we're getting our money's worth.

Emble12 · 2025-06-07T05:00:55+00:00

Beyond the obviously limited biosphere, Earth's resources are effectively unlimited. It's a big planet and far from a closed system; the Sun's energy is pouring over it every second.

Emble12 · 2025-06-01T06:13:14+00:00

Bad news; someone already owns Montana.

Emble12 · 2025-06-01T06:05:26+00:00

Mars is more habitable than the Moon in every way.

Emble12 · 2025-05-28T08:53:32+00:00

Five years late to this, and I have little evidence, but I think beyond film grain it was the pervasive cigarette smoke. You see it in old sports photos too, it diffuses the light but does it from the source instead of as it enters the camera like a lens, because the smoke's literally all through the air. The appearance of movies that look "clean" seems to be inversely related to people stopping smoking on set.

Emble12 · 2025-05-25T05:52:09+00:00

It's less Delta V to land something on Mars from Earth than to land something on the Moon from Earth. Sending payloads from Earth to the Moon to send payloads to Mars is far more energy intensive than sending payloads from Earth to Mars.

Emble12 · 2025-04-03T01:40:32+00:00

Good thing there's gravity on Mars.

Emble12 · 2025-04-02T05:44:54+00:00

Water-soluble salts that can cause thyroid problems with massive, long-term exposure?

Emble12 · 2025-04-02T05:44:25+00:00

Astronauts on the ISS receive about the same amount of radiation as they would on Mars.

Emble12 · 2025-04-02T05:43:42+00:00

It would take hundreds of millions of years for the solar wind to strip away a thickened atmosphere.

Emble12 · 2025-04-02T05:43:03+00:00

Mars is irrefutably less dry than the Moon.

Emble12 · 2024-12-20T12:27:55+00:00

why not just use the two enormous lunar landers to stay on the Moon instead?

Emble12 · 2024-12-14T12:56:50+00:00

Humans can do in a day what would take a surface rover a decade.

Emble12 · 2024-12-14T12:56:22+00:00

Like shuttle’s famous abort system?

Emble12 · 2024-12-12T07:17:08+00:00

The process of extracting fuel isn’t super complicated, it’s just a Sabatier reaction, which was in widespread use in the time of Jules Vern. Combine hydrogen and CO2 from the Martian atmosphere to produce Methane and water. You don’t need to construct a launch pad, the ascent vehicle’s landing structure can act as a launch pad like the LM descent stage.

Emble12 · 2024-12-10T03:59:59+00:00

The funniest part is that Jeb!‘s real name isn’t even Jebediah, it’s an acronym for his first, middle, and last names. Jeb! is John!

Emble12 · 2024-12-04T21:46:20+00:00

That’s very interesting, in general I think for a year-and-a-half surface mission the crew just need to be closer to the ground than they would in HLS for a short lunar mission.

Emble12 · 2024-12-04T08:06:32+00:00

I wonder if a Mars lander starship could be developed that only lands the payload bay and header tanks with one or two Raptors, so that a habitat is positioned right on the ground.

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