Point Defence in Space Combat

Point Defence in Space Combat
Spacedock

I usually post stuff I when I have something to say on the subject. I don't know if I've got anything to say about the subject here. We'll see, maybe something later. But right now I'm just kind of blown away. This guy is mixing Science Fiction space battles and real life, cutting-edge military weapons. If I heard him right, there is a chat group somewhere devoted to figuring out just what the next generation of weapons might be capable of. Such a discussion might be pointless, but then talking politics is equally pointless, but we still do it. And every once in a while a thought from one of these discussions might weasel its way out of the chat group, slither along the streets and avenues of society and into the ear of someone who can do something about it. I mean it has happened, hasn't it? Unfortunately, the one incident that pops into my head is one where the warning was not heeded. It was the idea of using an airliner to attack New York City. I read a story about that probably thirty years before it actually happened. 

Now that I think about it, I realize the guys in charge of airline security were probably thinking about it, but we never heard from them. All I heard about the airliners crashing into the Twin Towers was the idiotic "who'd-a-thunk-it?" Anybody who had a brain would-a-thunk it. But realizing you have a potential problem is only the first step. Next you need a solution. That's easy, you just dream up your perfect security apparatus. But now you have to sell it, and all the players have to agree on your solution. I'll bet that's what happened, nobody liked the idea of a perfect security apparatus so we did nothing. We worked on the honor system, and it worked for, what? 50 years?

I do wonder just what kind of airline security we should be using. Seems there ought to be a better way. Our current method of having a legion of TSA agents inspecting individual passengers is cumbersome and of dubious efficacy. One one hand it's annoying and time consuming, and number of actual terrorists they've stopped is near zero*. On the other hand, no airliners have been commandeered by terrorists lately.

* I have no idea how many terrorists the TSA has arrested. Of course, you can always fudge the numbers. If you were asking how many terrorists, to the nearest thousand, then anything less than 500 would round to zero. And that was the question you were asking, right? So I feel pretty safe about saying zero.

Back on the video. I really enjoy watching those test flights of maneuvering rockets. I'm gonna have to watch this again.

Doorbell

Defiant Doorbell

Went to Longbottoms for lunch today and then to Home Depot to pick up some small parts and a new doorbell. The old one worked fine, but the white was getting more yellow and since we got the living room repainted white, we thought a matching doorbell was in order. Well, it's white, but you know how many shades of white there are? It's close, but it's not exact. Maybe we'll try painting the cover of the old one.

Australia versus the Moon

Purnululu National Park

This morning's jigsaw puzzle. While technically Purnululu National Park is in Western Australia, it is closer to the northern edge. It is about 400 miles SSW of Darwin. (Google Map)

Coincidentally, I heard someone (Neil deGrasse Tyson maybe) comparing the diameter of the Moon to the size of Australia. Looking for a picture to illustrate this, I came across this 3D poster which gives a better picture of the situation than a simple 2D map.

Australia versus the Moon

Moon Versus Moon

Our Moon is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System. Three of the larger moons (Ganymede, Callisto and Io) are in orbit around Jupiter, one orbits Saturn (Titan). Our Moon is larger than the fourth Galilean moon (Europa).

Moons of Mars

Mars has two known moons, Phobos and Deimos ("fear" and "dread", after attendants of Ares, the Greek god of war, equivalent to the Roman Mars). 

Fear and Dread? Excellent! I'm going to look for an opportunity to deploy that factoid. 

Havenhuis

Port House - Antwerpia Belgia

I don't like goofball buildings like this one. I think they're a stupid waste of money, but I am always curious about them which, I suppose, is the point. They get people's attention and it certainly got mine. Once they have made an impact on our collective consciousness they become landmarks so that whenever you happen across it you'll think of the city that built it, in this case Antwerp.

Zaha Hadid Architects has a page of photos. Wikipedia also has a page about this building.

Links

Zerohedge is ranting about the Federal Government again. No surprise there, but this line in the linked article got my attention:

US To Borrow $1.5 Trillion In Debt This & Next Quarter, After Borrowing A Massive $1 Trillion Last Quarter. 

The linked article itself is full of . . . something . . . but this line pretty much sums it up. Remember when a billion used to be something? Now the government is borrowing a billion dollars every two hours. And then they send it to Ukraine and our own locally owned and operated defense industry.

Hamas Loves Dead Palestinians by Ben Shapiro on The Daily Wire. I don't particularly like Ben Shapiro, though I do agree with many of his views. I got my negative impression from several brief videos I've seen of him confronting someone opposed to him. He's kind of forceful and abrasive. I dunno, maybe that's what it takes to confront some of these idiots. Actually, he's probably a lot more civil than I would be. Of course, you'd be hard pressed to get me to confront an idiot. I mean, they're idiots, why waste your time? As to the article, I said something similar earlier.

Nasrallah & the Future of the War by As`ad AbuKhalil on Consortium News. Kind of a strange story, he's looking at the political forces at work in Lebanon. Evidently Nasrallah is the head of Hizbollah (Hezbollah?) so he gets to deal with Iran, Lebanon, Hamas and the Gulf States (by which I think the author means Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates).

Where are all these places? Here they are:

The Mideast
Area shown is approzimately 1,500 miles east to west and a thousand miles north to south

Every time I look at this area it's like a whole new experience - nothing is where I imagined it would be. Probably should try drawing it a few times.

Dragon Tails

Basque Coast Geopark in the Bay of Biscay near Bilbao, Spain

My first impression was that this is a very hostile landscape, for humans at least. I suppose all the nooks and crannies among these rocks make fine homes for all kinds of small creatures, some of which may be edible. So if you were careful you might be able to find enough to eat. Or you could if it wasn't some kind of park where almost anything fun is undoubtedly prohibited.

Title from Peapix. Wikipedia page.

Nick Goes Adventuring

Nick with today's bunch of rabbits

Nick has more fun than you and I and a dozen of our friends put together.