SLS Explainer

Just in time for tomorrow's planned launch, here're the basics, over at youtube:

Bonus video: Full-up booster core test at Stennis in March 2021.  Skip to the 56 minute mark to get to the actual eight minute (!!!) full duration test.

As usual, click to embiggen.  Big rockets are better that way.

JWST, WASP-39b, and CO2

Article at the Bad Astronomy blog.  Go read, not a lot I can add (beyond my jaw dropping in amazement once again).  Be sure to watch the embedded twitter video half-way down, there's a lot of key information there.  With error bars!

Obligatory swiped image.  Be sure to go to linked article for full discussion.

Pretty Much How It Is

xkcd 2662.  You should go there now to read the mouse-over text.

Pics from weekend adventures coming soon, but I'm too lazy to post just now.  Stay tuned.

My Week So Far

False start, crunchy sounds, up-front bass, amazing result: Alex Chilton (Alt Version)  

Hell no I didn't get up this early to post; I dropped it in the hopper Sunday for 5am on Monday.

Just Say "No" to Tape Measure Antennas

Article at Hackaday, with link to a deeper analysis.  TLDR: Springy steel tape measures and the like make miserable antennas, because physics.

Also worth watching (if you're into antennas), Keven Loughin does a two-part test and destructive tear-down on a commercially available steel tape antenna at his vlog.  TLDW: About the same performance as the rubber duck antenna that comes with most handheld radios.

So, what does work?  If you want something professionally made, there are any number of aftermarket whips that give somewhere from 3 to 6 dB gain.  For next to nothing and five minutes at the bench, a tiger tail will give you perhaps 3 dB gain.  If you have handy trees around, a roll-up slim jim works well, in either a DIY or ready-made version.  If you want full-on performance, the DIY cool(?)-factor, and don't mind its eight foot size, the Jurassic Duck Mk. II does really well.

But tape measures?  No, just no.

Science WITH the Gobbledygook

A fifteen minute video over at Sabine Hossenfelder's blog, turning the usual "without" to "with."  I'm just putting up a link; any more would be redundant.  Both funny and worrisome, it's very much worth your time.

A Quiet Week

With the relative quiet, I've actually had time to read through a couple of papers, re-consider a research path, read a few hundred more pages into a somewhat depressing book on global economics, ride the gravel bike, and enjoy a little late-night rum.  However, here's the quiet I'm most pleased about: