GearsNSuch

Perhaps they should print the money and use it as a more cost-effective form of rocket fuel.

Rings in a binary planetary system. The cursory Google search didn’t yield anything. How would these work? Theoretically the ring would just orbit the center of mass, but would a figure-8 configuration be stable as well? I ran a (highly inaccurate) particle-based simulation that seemed to indicate both would work, but I’d be interested to see if there’s hard data on this.

Someone remembers they ground the mirrors incorrectly in T-…

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_7K-ST_No.16L Two, in this case.

I have it on good authority that women think the same about men.

So that’s what all those Boring Company bricks were for…

Gotta love the COVID warning on the second tweet. What would be the drag impact on ascent of scales vs. tiles? I’d guess scales would be a good bit more turbulent…

You have to cross the Karman line for the royalty-free space music to suddenly start playing. If the royalty-free space music doesn’t play, are you really in space?

"Your Amazon order has been delivered."

When people don’t unit, however...

(Somewhat off topic, but...) If magic use is based on knowledge and training, perhaps the more accessible information that the 18th-19th centuries brought could simplify the process. Rather than climbing a mountain to learn Fireball I from a sage of yore over months of training, you could just pick up a book or take a class and learn the spell in the same time you might take to learn to shoot a rifle. Additionally, a greater understanding of the “science” behind magic could simplify and strengthen the processes of learning and casting.

Would be a shame if an asteroid hit the other side and spoiled the resemblance...

That is simultaneously one of the dumbest and best things I have ever seen. It's a massive chunk of metal gracefully hovering under its own power- it shouldn't work, but it just does. And that is fantastic.

Russia is still very much present and capable after the USSR's fall. There's just no motivation or reason for the state funded Roscosmos to continue to innovate. The rockets they have are reliable and cheap enough– why bother? NASA has a similar problem with SLS (not to bash on it). Between the Soyuz and now the Crew Dragon, there's just not a good enough reason to speed development on. Why bother when there are other options present? During the Space Race, the USSR and the U.S. both had such massive, innovative, and successful space programs because there was a clear goal (winning) with clear benefits (political and strategic power). Ultimately, it was a win for both countries, and something previously unimaginable on both a technical and political level, the Apollo-Soyuz project, became possible. The reason why something like SpaceX can be successful and revolutionary is because there's profit for them in innovating. That's always been the reason, but where that profit comes from has shifted from political sources to commercial, at least in the here and now. So, if some enterprising individual in Russia wanted to found a private launch company and had the brains, finances, and connections to do so...

Imagine a modern rendition of those ancient myths where Ra or Apollo or whoever just used a pickup truck instead of a chariot...

I was driving over a bridge today, and a six wheeled work truck to the front and left of me suddenly became a five wheeled one. The left middle wheel rolled off and kind of just meandered behind the truck and over to the right emergency lane without hitting anyone or wobbling in the slightest. The speed limit was 70, so it could have caused a pretty bad accident, but it just politely moved itself across two lanes to the side of the road. Always tighten your lug nuts, kids.

Obligatory XKCD:

Took a few photos from the launch attempt yesterday. None are very good (taken with a phone camera) and are all in different orientations, but hey. VAB, as well as some of those pesky storm clouds. The weather was really quite beautiful, wavering between rain and clear with a nice, consistent breeze. Too bad that's incompatible with rockets. Fun fact: holding a phone up to a pair of binoculars, focusing them, and taking a picture requires use of your nose. Steamy stuff coming from the rocket (not visible) shortly before word of the scrub passed around. It's not exaggerating to say that there were at least seven ospreys with catfish. Maybe the fish just wanted to get a good vantage point on the launch? Oh, and a manatee. It looked like he was trying to do sit-ups to reach this mangrove, and after quite a few tries he finally got it.

That only makes it more likely that the report is true. Though maybe the thinking is that there is a time where a patient has antibodies but is still infectious.

Well, that’s another tin can that a raccoon won’t get its head stuck in.

https://disrn.com/news/i-love-you-all-man-thanks-hospital-staff-for-saving-wifes-life Nice to see that this epidemic isn’t just bringing out the worst in people.

That's a rather small curling sheet you've got there.

... More of the front fell off, I guess.