totm aug 2023 What funny/interesting thing happened in your life today?

[razark]

I'm at MSFC for a week of training.  Got in to town way to early to check in to the hotel, so my coworker and I went to the visitor center.  Their Saturn V display is better than the one at JSC, but it's not flight hardware, like ours.  They also have an Apollo capsule mockup you can get in.  Very cramped, amazing that three people could fly around the moon in that thing.

 

Anyway, I got to try SCE to Aux.

[Bill Phil]

1 hour ago, razark said:

I'm at MSFC for a week of training.  Got in to town way to early to check in to the hotel, so my coworker and I went to the visitor center.  Their Saturn V display is better than the one at JSC, but it's not flight hardware, like ours.  They also have an Apollo capsule mockup you can get in.  Very cramped, amazing that three people could fly around the moon in that thing.

 

Anyway, I got to try SCE to Aux.

Enjoy your time in the area.

[Ultimate Steve]

Someone reread one of my mission reports, Voyage: The Final Warning and found this lovely snippet:

Quote

Elon Musk sat, transfixed at one of the windows, probably thinking up a way to launch a Tesla to Mars.

And that snippet of the story was from June 15, 2017. This was almost six months before the FH test payload was announced!

 

 

[NSEP]

The Moon thing failed. Ya girl Luna tends to bob around when orbiting.

https://youtu.be/7JqVqvIlrwA

Edited March 7, 2018 by NSEP

[TheSaint]

I signed my sons up for hunter education class today. They're almost as excited as I am.

[NSEP]

14 minutes ago, TheSaint said:

I signed my sons up for hunter education class today. They're almost as excited as I am.

Wait, hunter education class? Sounds badass!

I never knew that existed, but it makes alot of sense.

[TheSaint]

Just now, NSEP said:

Wait, hunter education class? Sounds badass!

I never knew that existed, but it makes alot of sense.

Yes, education is a good thing. It keeps you from being stupid. And, when you're wandering around in the woods with firearms looking for deer to shoot, being stupid can lead to Very Bad Things. And besides, in Arizona a hunter education course is a) mandatory for anyone under the age of 18, and, b) gives you an extra chance in the tag lottery draw for life.

[Geonovast]

I had to take a Hunter Education Course (I don't remember its actual name) when I was younger.  14? 15?  I don't remember what age, but I was definitely under 18.

I had no interest in hunting, but I really really liked shooting a bow.  We lived in town, with close neighbors.  In order to shoot in my back yard, I had to get my neighbors to sign something saying they were ok with it, and take the course.

I think it should be mandatory for everyone, hunter or not.  Regardless of how well you try to avoid it, it's very possible you may end up around guns at some point in your life.  And you need to know how to treat them.

[NSEP]

6 minutes ago, TheSaint said:

Yes, education is a good thing. It keeps you from being stupid. And, when you're wandering around in the woods with firearms looking for deer to shoot, being stupid can lead to Very Bad Things. And besides, in Arizona a hunter education course is a) mandatory for anyone under the age of 18, and, b) gives you an extra chance in the tag lottery draw for life.

Spoiler

I think it should be mandatory for everyone, hunter or not.  Regardless of how well you try to avoid it, it's very possible you may end up around guns at some point in your life.  And you need to know how to treat them.

Hunting is an alien thing where i live. I don't know if its illegal or just unpopular/impossible to do it here. If i ever ended up in a situation where i have my hands on a firearm/weapon, that i could actually use, and is not just a prop, i must be really far away from home. And im not going to discuss wether its a good thing or not, just to keep the forums a nice place.

Edited March 7, 2018 by NSEP

[Shpaget]

1 hour ago, NSEP said:

Wait, hunter education class? Sounds badass!

I never knew that existed, but it makes alot of sense.

I'm honestly surprised by your surprise. I would assume that all the countries in the civilized world that issue hunting permits require some sort of course. If nothing else, just so you can prove you know the difference between a rabbit and an elk, and when you are allowed to shoot each. 

Is it really free for all at your location?

Edited March 7, 2018 by Shpaget

[NSEP]

1 hour ago, Shpaget said:

I'm honestly surprised by your surprise. I would assume that all the countries in the civilized world that issue hunting permits require some sort of course. If nothing else, just so you can prove you know the difference between a rabbit and an elk, and when you are allowed to shoot each. 

Is it really free for all at your location?

Again, guns and hunting aren't common at all in my homeland. So teaching our kids how to properly use a gun and do hunting is like teaching a kid who lives in the jungle on how to survive in the tundra, its a bit out of place.

But maybe there is a hunting-ed thing in my country that i don't know of.

Edited March 7, 2018 by NSEP

[qzgy]

School was off yesterday cause of the snow. And today too! And the power there is also out for the second time in a week.

Where I am its fine though.

[Piatzin]

On 3/7/2018 at 8:03 PM, TheSaint said:

And, when you're wandering around in the woods with firearms looking for deer to shoot

But, but the deer has feelings....

20 hours ago, NSEP said:

Again, guns and hunting aren't common at all in my homeland. So teaching our kids how to properly use a gun and do hunting is like teaching a kid who lives in the jungle on how to survive in the tundra, its a bit out of place.

Me ^

I only ever saw guns on policemen. The first time I saw a rifle came about when I was 12.

Oh but then I was in Brussels for a little over a year, and if you remember about all those terrorist attacks, then, well....

Lets just say I saw guns daily...

[qzgy]

2 hours ago, Earthlinger said:

But, but the deer has feelings....

Not after you shoot it! i'll go take my sick humor somewhere else...

Also, what MaaThhh help do you need?

[Delay]

Not strictly today, but yesterday I finally decided to try finding an equation for a launch window calculator to interplanetary targets. I did that successfully!

I'm still surprised that the equation contains no mention of the gravitational constant or the parent's mass. Just your SMA and your target's orbital radius.

Edited March 8, 2018 by Delay

[Bill Phil]

6 hours ago, Delay said:

Not strictly today, but yesterday I finally decided to try finding an equation for a launch window calculator to interplanetary targets. I did that successfully!

I'm still surprised that the equation contains no mention of the gravitational constant or the parent's mass. Just your SMA and your target's orbital radius.

The synodic period equation?

Edited March 9, 2018 by Bill Phil

[TheSaint]

9 hours ago, Earthlinger said:

But, but the deer has feelings....

Me ^

I only ever saw guns on policemen. The first time I saw a rifle came about when I was 12.

Oh but then I was in Brussels for a little over a year, and if you remember about all those terrorist attacks, then, well....

Lets just say I saw guns daily...

Different worlds. I actually ran across some pictures of my dad's gun collection, scanned them for the fun of it. These were the guns that I grew up with:

Most of that collection got sold off when Dad passed away, I kept like four of them that had sentimental and/or practical value and then started my own collection from there.

[razark]

15 minutes ago, TheSaint said:

These were the guns that I grew up with:

I'm curious as to why?

Did he think there was a reason he would need them, or did he just like to have/collect them?

 

 

Edit: Honestly, I'm not trying to express a judgement here.  I can see both sides of the argument that often follows.  I am sincerely curious.

Edited March 9, 2018 by razark

[TheSaint]

Just now, razark said:

I'm curious as to why?

Did he think there was a reason he would need them, or did he just like to have them?

Yes and yes. He was very big on home defense. At any given time in our house there was a 1911 in his nightstand, a S&W .38 Special revolver in my mom's nightstand, a Colt Python under the couch cushions, and a Remington 870 shotgun behind the half-wall next to the front door. He normally carried that little pearl-handled .22 derringer around in his pocket if he thought he might need it. But other than that, he just liked guns. He knew most of the gunsmiths and gun shop owners around the San Fernando Valley in the 70s and 80s, and he would just make the rounds and see what they got in and if he liked it he bought it.

Actually that Steyr AUG (bullpup rifle on the top left) was all me. I saw an article about it in a magazine when I was 16 and I just thought it was the coolest rifle ever. So Dad and I were up at Sherwood Imports up in Northridge one day and they had the civilian version up on the wall and I was drooling over it, so Dad was all, "Okay, let's buy it." I loved that rifle. That was literally the last one I sold from the collection. I did not want to let it go, but I needed the money and California wasn't going to let me keep it anyway. Still get bummed out thinking about it.

[razark]

15 minutes ago, TheSaint said:

He was very big on home defense.

I can understand carrying one and having one easily available in the home.  The sheer quantity stashed around the home just seems a little bit paranoid to me.  I'm sorry, but there's only so many weapons that two hands can handle at a time.

 

Of course, I also understand the appeal of collecting some of them.  I'm particularly a fan of the M1911, M1, and M1 carbine for historical reasons, and I wouldn't pass up a Luger, either.  But I've known a number of folks who owned guns that they would never use, and it just seems a little strange to me.

15 minutes ago, TheSaint said:

Actually that Steyr AUG (bullpup rifle on the top left) was all me. I saw an article about it in a magazine when I was 16 and I just thought it was the coolest rifle ever.

I can't articulate exactly why, but it just looks a bit ugly to me.

 

(And, again, I'm not wanting to start an argument with anyone.  I'm just trying to understand the mindset of people different from me.)

Edited March 9, 2018 by razark

[XB-70A]

33 minutes ago, TheSaint said:

Actually that Steyr AUG (bullpup rifle on the top left) was all me.

I became crazy of it as a kid when I looked at Die Hard for the first time. The villain named Karl was using one of them and I found its design beautiful at the time (like all the bullpups).

Also, what is this configuration of the Uzi? I never saw one like that one. Was it a sort of carbine configured one?

[TheSaint]

16 minutes ago, razark said:

I can understand carrying one and having one easily available in the home.  The sheer quantity stashed around the home just seems a little bit paranoid to me.  I'm sorry, but there's only so many weapons that two hands can handle at a time.

It's funny for me, because that was the way I grew up. "This is your childhood, compare it to all of the other childhoods you have had."  But looking back on it now, I'm all, "Yeah, that was a bit much." Now I have one in the nightstand and I carry. That's plenty.

16 minutes ago, razark said:

Of course, I also understand the appeal of collecting some of them.  I'm particularly a fan of the M1911, M1, and M1 carbine for historical reasons, and I wouldn't pass up a Luger, either.  But I've known a number of folks who owned guns that they would never use, and it just seems a little strange to me.

I'm kinda the same way. I have some C&R guns that are safe queens, I've got a Garand and an M1 carbine, and a couple of 1903s, and a 1911. But everything else is practical.

I have to say though, looking back on those pictures tonight. That Luger. That was a pedant-proofed pre-war production Luger. Today that gun would sell for more than I sold that entire collection for. There were a couple of guns in that collection like that. I cry a little on the inside every time I think about that.

16 minutes ago, razark said:

I can't articulate exactly why, but it just looks a bit ugly to me.

(And, again, I'm not wanting to start an argument with anyone.  I'm just trying to understand the mindset of people different from me.)

Well, no argument here. Different strokes. I liked it because it was staggeringly accurate. I liked the integrated optic. I liked that it was a bullpup, which made it really well balanced, it handled really well. It was just a really great rifle.

1 minute ago, XB-70A said:

I became crazy of it as a kid when I looked at Die Hard for the first time. The villain named Karl was using one of them and I found its design beautiful at the time (like all the bullpups).

Also, what is this configuration of the Uzi? I never saw one like that one. Was it a sort of carbine configured one?

That was an Uzi Model B carbine. It was modified from the original Uzi to have a 16-inch barrel, and to fire from a closed bolt. The original Uzi carbines that were imported in the 1980s, the Model As, were simple conversion from the open-bolt models, but the ATF didn't like them because they were too easy to convert to full-automatic. So IMI created the Model B which were closed-bolt.

[Delay]

3 hours ago, Bill Phil said:

The synodic period equation?

I don't know. What I do is use half your orbital period and the velocity of your target (planet). With that I calculate the distace the target (planet) has travelled, then I compute the corresponding angle with regards to its orbital radius and subtract that from 180 it's basically what this Launch Window Calculator gives you as an answer.

180-^{180*sqrt(SMA^3)}/_r^1.5

SMA is your semi major axis,

r is the radius of your target's orbit.

[razark]

 

12 minutes ago, TheSaint said:

C&R guns

A what now?  I don't know that terminology.

 

6 minutes ago, TheSaint said:

Well, no argument here. Different strokes.

If you don't mind, I'll apply that to the whole conversation.

I appreciate a civil discourse.  Different views can disagree without resorting to extremes.

 

9 minutes ago, TheSaint said:

"This is your childhood, compare it to all of the other childhoods you have had."

I've had a lot of good discussions with people of different upbringings.  I've found that people with similar childhoods can end up with wildly different lives, and people with extremely differnet backgrounds end up very close.

[TheSaint]

Just now, razark said:

A what now?  I don't know that terminology.

Curio & Relic. Generally a firearm that is over 50 years old, by ATF definition. There are slightly different rules for their transfers.