Rik's Ramblings

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Chinese junk

Got an awesome "front row seat" view of this last night.  We were sat out on the deck, watching "Bourne Legacy".
   - https://youtu.be/fFpL36n68eY

It really did go as "slow" as they show in the YouTube video, I watched it for (I think) a couple of minutes as it cruised by, then out to the horizon.

Southwest to southeast from where we are, slightly below Mars. 

Massive tail of smoke that hung in the sky for ages after the thing was gone.

CZ-7 R/B (16042E)
http://www.satview.org/?sat_id=41628U
   - SATVIEW: Tracking satellites in Real time

   

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Uninspiring NASA Mission to suck on a rock!

What the fuck happened to the "stepping stone to Mars" mission we were promised?

It seems it went from :
  • Send astronauts to the asteroid belt to investigate an asteroid ..., to
  • Send a robot probe to the asteroid belt, capture an asteroid, bring it to lunar orbit, send astronauts to the asteroid to investigate it ..., which became
  • Send a robot probe to the asteroid belt, capture a large bolder via some gravitational tractor beam shit, bring that to lunar orbit where astronauts can investigate it ..., but apparently now its
  • Go somewhere not very far away, suck some dust of it, wait for earth to do a drive-by, at which time we'll poop the sample out of the spacecraft and it'll hopefully hit the ground intact.
I mean sure, I imagine this mission allows some interesting science for a lot less money than the other options, but my hopes had been built up for a deep space escapade! Let's take a look at what I thought we would be attempting this year:

Saturday, July 23, 2016

First approved delivery by drone

http://m.phys.org/news/2016-07-donuts-flight-us-approved-drone-delivery.html

First delivery approved by the US aviation authority.  Of course they had to include donuts ... I hope that was irony!

A rounding rendition of God Bless America is in order.

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Ginsburg: I Regret 'Ill-Advised' Criticisms of Trump

http://nbcnews.to/2acyvhx

"...recent remarks in response to press inquiries were ill-advised and I regret making them," 

But she still feels them, let's not confuse the regret about the comment with any change of opinion!

   

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

The Boris and Donald Comedy Hour

So disappointed that this isn't going to happen. It was the one good thing I expected to come out of the Brexit.

Thursday, July 07, 2016

The Outsides ... brought to you by Nintendo

I've been going to The Outsides, and walking around it, for many years.

Suddenly, almost overnight, The Outsides is now teeming with people who seem ill prepared to be there. They lacking the general training and experience to be there.

They're all very excited and carrying on like they've just invented The Outsides. However, they seem to think it's an accessory for their smartphone, as they have to stare at the phone whilst remarking about how much they enjoy The Outsides.

Hopefully they will soon all get bored of Pokemon Go and return to their Starbucks.