Daily archives: February 26, 2008

Vertical Airships

This entry was posted in Airship Flight research on by

Airship.org was set up in 1987 to promote vertical airships as the future of air transport. Tall airships, they claim, are easier to construct, more efficient load carriers and more nimble in the urban environment than their cigar shaped forebears. The description of them having “interesting aerodynamic characteristics” could be read in a number of ways though.

The Airship.org site has specs for several proposed designs and you can download a model of one of their ships to fly in Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Nuclear CSI

This entry was posted in CSI forensics Nuclear bomb research Tom Clancy on by

With the right mobile equipment, nuclear detectives could sift through the debris and the radioactive cloud of an attack in this country or elsewhere and quickly glean crucial information, the scientists argued in a 60-page report discussed Feb. 16 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Boston.

The report, Nuclear Forensics: Role, State of the Art, Program Needs, was written by a joint working group of the AAAS and the American Physical Society.

Using radiochemistry techniques and access to proposed international databases that include actual samples of uranium and plutonium from around the world, the nuclear investigators might be able to tell the president – and the world – where the bomb fuel came from, or at least rule out some suspects.

“Nuclear forensics can make a difference,” May said in an interview.

Fascinating stuff. Nuclear forensics was a key part of The Sum Of All Fears (the book, anyway, I’m trying to forget the film) but, the scientists assert, that sort of expertise has disappeared since the end of the Cold War. More here.

Masterplan

This entry was posted in lyrics Oasis on by

Take the time to make some sense
Of what you want to say
And cast your words away upon the waves
Bring them back with Acquiesce
On a ship of hope today
And as they fall upon the shore
Tell them not to fear no more
Say it loud and sing it proud
And they…

Will dance if they want to dance
Please brother take a chance
You know they’re gonna go
Which way they wanna go
All we know is that we don’t know
What is gonna be
Please brother let it be
Life on the other hand won’t let you understand
Why we’re all part of the masterplan

I’m not saying right is wrong
It’s up to us to make
The best of all things that come our way
And all the things that came have past
The answer’s in the looking glass
There’s four and twenty million doors
Down life’s endless corridor
Say it loud and sing it proud
And they…

Will dance if they want to dance
Please brother take a chance
You know they’re gonna go
Which way they wanna go
All we know is that we don’t know
What is gonna be
Please brother let it be
Life on the other hand won’t let you understand
Why we’re all part of the masterplan

Oasis – The Masterplan