Beechcraft Premier 1

Beechcraft Premier 1

Kind of an unusual shape to the fuselage. The bulging bottom reminds me of cargo pods that are sometimes slung beneath Cessna Caravans. Wikipedia page here.

4 X 4 Suspension

Jeep JL ICON Suspension

I've been watching Matt's Off Road Recovery on YouTube for a while now and I am reminded of the amount of flex these vehicles need in order to get around when out crawling around on big rocks. The way you get flex is to remove the (anti)roll bars from the suspension. Problem then is that the vehicle leans heavily toward the outside when going around corners at speed. Second problem is the large twisting force applied to the vehicle when it goes over ground and the front axle has tilted one way to maintain contact with the ground, and the rear axle has tilted the other way for the same reasons.

Solution: mount one of those fancy shocks at each cornet and connect them via hydraulic or gas lines to each other. When one shock gets compressed, it sends gas to the other three shocks. The shock on the other end of the same axle uses it to extend the shock. The shock on the other axle, but on the same side of the vehicle also uses it to extend the shock. However, the third shock, the one diagonally opposite from our #1 example shock, uses the pressure to contract the shock, mirroring the action of the #1 shock.

Well, I think it's a great idea, but now I'm thinking I'm going to need to build one and try it out. I figure I'd buy an old jeep for maybe ten grand, and then hire a local 4 by 4 shop to install the pneumatic suspension. That'd probably cost another ten grand. And then you probably ought to double it because these things never go as planned.

What would help if I knew somebody who worked with suspensions for 4 by 4's on a daily basis, What would really help is my leg would stop complaining.

Previous post on the subject.

Fudge

I feel like I am back to square zero. I started going for walks around the block, ten minutes, last Saturday. Everything seemed to be fine. Wednesday I am just finishing my walk, I'm about 100 yards from my house and my hip starts hurting. When I got back to the house it was hurting like it was before the joint replacement surgery. Two days later and it still hurts like a sum bitch. Fudge. 

Refugees

Cox’s Bazar refugee camp in Bangladesh - Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera

Wherever there is strife, we are almost sure to find refugee camps. I hear about them intermittently, but usually from government agencies via commercial media. Today I came across a story on Aljazeera from a refugee from Burma (now called Myanmar by the military junta that seized power several years ago) who is now living in a refugee camp in Bangladesh. It gives you a different, i.e. an inside view of the situation.

Facebook should pay for what it did to my people, Rohingya 

by Maung Sawyeddollah, a Rohingya refugee in Bangladesh

For six years, I have been stuck in an overcrowded refugee camp in Bangladesh with little hope for the future. Facebook helped create the conditions that got me here.

I suspect Zuckerberg is a bit of an idiot savant. Very good at creating his social media empire and keeping it running, but not fully aware of what kind of monster he has created, and he certainly isn't in control of it. I mean, who can control the monster of public opinion? You can try to influence it here and there, but there are liable to be unintended consequences. They just haven't come back to bit him on the ass yet.

TDR-1 & WW2 TV

America's Secret WW2 Combat Drone That Bombed The Japanese | The TDR-1
Rex's Hanger

I'm watching this video and it all seems perfectly fine until he gets to the part about the TV. Wait a minute, TV cameras in remotely piloted drones? Yeah, okay, maybe in the 1950's, but in WW2? I think you're pulling my leg. But the video tells a pretty compelling tale. Anyway, the wormhole opened and I fell in.

WWII Military Television Development (Part 1)
InfoAge Science & History Museums

This video is kind of long. He does have a good line at 55 second mark:

'my actual boss gave me a magazine that had an article about television news, during world war two, to guide missiles. I'm saying guide missiles? I thought that was a black hole in time where television came out in 1939, the World's Fair, was introduced and then something it appeared again in the late 40s with, you know, Howdy Doody, you know how to do commercial television.'

There are also several video clips from WW2 shown in line with the video. They are of varying interest. Here they are spreadsheetified:

I could not format the time the way I wanted. If there were no hours involved, I just wanted to start with the minutes, but Google won't allow it. You can dispense with the leading number if it is zero, but you have to keep the leading colon. Stupid computer. Don't you know nuthin' about formatting time?

I like the hot rod they build to launch the GM Bug in the first clip. 100 MPH in 1500 feet. That's pretty good even today. Dual Cadillac engines, each one connected to a 'fluid flywheel'. In 1943.

Anyway, I think the deal was that we had a bunch of eggheads who were able to build these drones during WW2, but they didn't have enough clout to support a public relations department. I also suspect there just wasn't enough electrical engineering talent to go around. The mass of industry was still mechanical. The impetus of war probably enlarged the pool of engineering talent by tenfold before the war was over. More opportunities for more people meant more electrical engineers to work on screwball ideas like drones with TV cameras.

Here's some pics of the camera:

Block Camera - Nowak Archive

World War Two Airborne TV Camera

Courtesy of Richard Diehl

Airborne Television Camera CRV-59AAE

Sintra National Palace

Sintra National Palace

This place is old. From Wikipedia:

It is the best-preserved medieval royal residence in Portugal, being inhabited more or less continuously from at least the early 15th century to the late 19th century.

Palace of Sintra drawn by Duarte De Armas around 1509

Google Maps 3D View

Bill Withers - Ain't No Sunshine

On account of I heard a snatch of it on another video this morning. One of my favorites.