Pages

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Safe Flying-Wing Airliners circa 1949: Jack Northrop's XB-49 as a Jules Verne Passenger Plane



We are not as advanced as we deceive ourselves to be.

The thousands of burned-up dead people who died needlessly in flimsy tube & wing airliners would scream out in outrage at our BS if they could. The Can-Do, WW2 "Greatest Generation" thought correctly about life's physical forces and created smart designs like Burnelli blended wing body and Northrop flying wings but as the threats of war faded, narcissism (ego) and bureaucratic greed ($) took over the defense and civilian industries alike with losers creating rackets like the unsafe gasoline-powered automobile and highways (40, 000 dead each year ever since the 1950s) that wrongly squeeze safe train travel out as our main transportation means.

http://www.combatreform.org/thebraveamerican.htm

This video shows how in 1949 visionary men like Northrop had the right idea--and reminds us to our shame that we haven't done "jack shit" to advance aviation ever since. Interestingly enough, if you watch the Cary Grant movie, "The Bishop's Wife" in the opening scenes, there's a model of a XB-49 Flying wing hanging from a shop you can see through the window. The classic sci-fi 1952 movie, "The War of the Worlds" features the XB-49 dropping a nuclear bomb to stop the aliens. The knowledge that flying bodies and blended wings are best was there--we just wimped out when control difficulties arose so we reverted back to BS tube & wing planes to keep the cash $$$ flowing. Burnelli BWB planes would have full tails and control surfaces--so there's no excuse.

http://www.aircrash.org

The question to you, CITIZEN, is...are you going to continue to fly in deathtrap tube & wing airliners like schmucks or are you going to boycott air travel and demand safer planes before you give the corporations your hard-earned dollars? Sometimes just saying "NO!" is the best thing for you, our nation and mankind. Take a train. Watch the high speed train the Europeans use featured in the 2006 James Bond, 007 movie "Casino Royale"--that's how Americans should travel from coast-to-coast.

Want to build a 1/144 scale model of the XB-49?

http://www.anigrand.com/AA4009_YB-49.htm

Friday, April 27, 2012

Thursday, April 26, 2012

ghost caught on video at woodchester mansion

Woodchester Mansion is an unfinished, Gothic revival mansion house located in Woodchester Park near Nympsfield in Woodchester, Gloucestershire, England. It was formerly known as Spring Park.
The Mansion was abandoned by its builders in the middle of construction, leaving behind a building that appears complete from the outside, but with floors, plaster and whole rooms missing inside. It has remained in this state since the mid-1870s
During the building work there were seven deaths six from accidents and a reported murder.
The mansion has its very own chapel lit by two large stained glass windows. This chapel is said to be involved in "Satanic Rituals" during the 1890's. There is also a small chapel on the left of the main chapel which is said to be intended for Leigh's personal use. These two rooms are connected by an arch passageway. Guests and visitors have reported seeing stones and other bits of masonry being thrown across the chapel

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Evolution of the Moon

Although the moon has remained largely unchanged during human history, our understanding of it and how it has evolved over time has evolved dramatically. Thanks to new measurements, we have new and unprecedented views of its surface, along with new insight into how it and other rocky planets in our solar system came to look the way they do.

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?10930

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Earth Hour 2012

A symbolic gesture to raise awareness about energy consumption, Earth Hour has grown since its beginning in 2007 in Sydney to now include observances in 147 countries and over 5000 cities. For one hour, lights are switched off at 8:30 local time on the last Saturday in March. Increasing public environmental awareness in China, which has overtaken the United States as the world's biggest polluter, has led 124 cities there to mark Earth Hour. Beginning with the second photograph, click the pictures to see them fade from lights on to the lights switched off during Earth Hour 2012.


Children light candles during a ceremony to mark Earth Hour in Islamabad, Pakistan on March 31, 2012. Earth Hour took place worldwide at 8.30 p.m. local times and as an annual global call to turn off lights for 60 minutes in a bid to highlight energy consumption. (Anjum Naveed/Associated Press)





The Marina Bay Sands hotel and ArtScience Museum (right) in Singapore on March 31, 2012.   [ Click to fade ]   (Matthew Lee/Reuters)





Commercial buildings in Hong Kong's Central district on March 31, 2012.   [ Click to fade ]   (Kin Cheung/Associated Press)





Malaysia's iconic Patronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur on March 31, 2012.   [ Click to fade ]   (Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images)





Prambanan temple outside Yogyakarta city, Central Java, Indonesia on March 31, 2012.   [ Click to fade ]   (Dwi Oblo/Reuters)





The Great Wall at Badaling on March 31, 2012 in Beijing. About 124 Chinese cities joined the WWF worldwide initiative Earth Hour.   [ Click to fade ]   (Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)





The Sydney Harbour Bridge and city skyline on March 29, 2012 before Earth Hour, and during Earth Hour March 31, 2012.   [ Click to fade ]   (Tim Wimborne/Reuters)





City Hall (right) and the Cathedral of Our Dear Lady in Munich on March 31, 2012.   [ Click to fade ]   (Sven Hoppe/AFP/Getty Images)





St Stephen's Tower in London on March 31, 2012.   [ Click to fade ]   (Lewis Whyld/PA/Associated Press)





The Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver on March 31, 2012.   [ Click to fade ]   (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press/Associated Press)





An ice-cream vendor works next to the India Gate in New Delhi on March 31, 2012.   [ Click to fade ]   (Parivartan Sharma/Reuters)





The Chillon Castle, Chateau de Chillon, in Veytaux, near Montreux and the Lake of Geneva, Switzerland on March 31, 2012.   [ Click to fade ]   (Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone/Associated Press)





The Palace of Culture in Warsaw on March 31, 2012.   [ Click to fade ]   (Kacper Pempel/Reuters)





Serge Orru, General Director of French WWF branch, Isabelle Autissier, President of French WWF branch and Denis Baupin, Deputy Mayor of Paris work the lights of the Eiffel Tower during Earth Hour on March 31, 2012 in Paris.   [ Click to fade ]   (Antoine Antoniol/Getty Images)





The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on March 31, 2012.   [ Click to fade ]   (Markus Schreiber/Associated Press)





St. Peter's Basilica in Rome on March 31, 2012.   [ Click to fade ]   (Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty Images)





An historical part of Tbilisi, Georgia on March 31, 2012.   [ Click to fade ]   (David Mdzinarishvili/Reuters)





A Soviet-era skyscraper on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment near the Moskva River in Moscow on March 31, 2012.   [ Click to fade ]   (Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)





The "Ham Ca Map" building in Hanoi on March 31, 2012.   [ Click to fade ]   (Kham/Reuters)





The Baiterek monument in Kazakhstan's capital Astana on March 31, 2012.   [ Click to fade ]   (Mukhtar Kholdorbekov/Reuters)





The Taipei 101 building in Taipei on March 31, 2012.   [ Click to fade ]   (Pichi Chuang/Reuters)





China's National Stadium (right), also known as the "Bird's Nest", and the National Aquatics Center, also known as the "Water Cube", in Beijing on March 31, 2012.   [ Click to fade ]   (David Gray/Reuters)





The Bund on the banks of the Huangpu River in Shanghai on March 31, 2012.   [ Click to fade ]   (Aly Song/Reuters)





The City Hall of Puebla, Mexico on March 31, 2012.   [ Click to fade ]   (Imelda Medina/Reuters)





The Sydney city skyline on March 29, 2012 before Earth Hour, and during Earth Hour on March 31, 2012.   [ Click to fade ]   (Tim Wimborne/Reuters)