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Was watching some of the online feed from NASA on the ISS and think it's nice they have a Russian to English translator when the Russian cosmonauts are communicating. I was wondering, it was said in the "early" days nickel-hydrogen batteries were used on the ISS when orbiting the "dark side"...

Watching the Superbowl and I remember when I practiced medicine a Merck drug rep came in to detail me on the "latest drugs". He was a massive guy and eventually said he played in the Superbowl years ago with the Steelers. He was a linebacker and admitted he wasn't a star but had to quit...

Ummm, I suspect I posted this years before but in my old age would like to resurrect it again. Back in the day when the Peoria (Illinois) Area Rocketry Society was getting established, we had a guy (who will remain nameless for his protection) who loved flying "odd-rocks". He came up with an...

I remember a funny story my maternal uncle Cecil told me. He was in the Air Force and worked on the Minute Man I and maybe II missiles in the mid 60's in Cheyenne, Wyoming. I asked him if there were any stories he could tell me about his time in the Air Force. As I was a young teen, I thought...

Since I've retired, I've took to the sport of outsmarting the phone scammers. My late wife was smart especially after we got caller ID installed. I took that one step further after she died and I retired and bought a call blocker phone device. Don't recognize the number? Hit the button on...

Yes, It's nice to pay off the mortgage for deceased veterans spouses as T to T espouses but who the heck is going to pay the property taxes on said property once it's paid off? Yeah, it gives the surviving spouse some breathing room to re-plan their family's lives with surviving kids (if any)...

Spent part of the day yesterday sorting out my credit card statement. I've not been to Arizona, California or Springfield, Illinois lately and charges started coming up from restaurants at those locations on my bill. Even called one of them to confirm where they are at. I live out in the...

Just got done for the day cleaning up an epoxy hardener spill. I have some old garbage cans in a dolly that got beat up in the old days from the refuse guys slinging them into the trucks. Some sharp edges from being beat on, on the barrel of the cans. I switched to plastic bags and use the...

Oh my gosh. A full body cam video was released of an officer being attacked in Naperville, Illinois in June. He did a routine traffic stop and some stupid guy pulled up and tried to take out the officer with a hatchet. Six rounds from his automatic put the perp down. I just don't know why...

Just received a link from NASA on the Artemis one mission. I thought it was informative and very cute. https://www.nasa.gov/specials/moonikin-comic/#camp Sending the Orion capsule around the moon sounds like a pretty decent test to me as opposed to the risk of live astronauts in low earth...

I was having a "remembering" day when I was very young and tried to convert a Jetco Thermic 18 glider to a jet glider with an Estes rocket motor. If one looks up a Thermic 18 glider, there was an indentation in the aft airframe that would allow for a rocket engine to be placed. I carved a...

Hi, I got an email from a medical group that mentioned something about "It's not rocket science" as pertaining to neurosurgery. I posted and elaborated humorously to the discussion I've done primary care medicine and still want to get back to launching rockets. The link to the article I was...

My Aviation Week and Space Technology print and online subscription paid off. It was reported online a Class X (meaning really big) coronal mass ejection occurred from old man Sol (our Sun) the 28th that could result in a G3 class geomagnetic storm. G4 is the highest grade. What this means to...

Well shoot. Just got a notice from T-mobile/Sprint that the 3G cellphone system is going to be shut off in January and my beloved Nexus 6p will be useless. I went into a local Verizon dealer today and she said it's going to be system wide. Well I bought two 6p's used (cheap) online, got...

Hi, I've ordered NB shoes online for years living out in the boondocks with no nearby shoe store that had them. Over the last year I've noticed their quality control on sizing has simply gone to h$ll. I'd keep a pair for backup and never had to try them on first as I have been and always will...

Shoot, I just read in the latest issue of Aviation Week and Space Technology that Aerojet Rocketdyne has completed a full-scale static test of a "throttleable" solid rocket motor developed to power a variable-range hypersonic missile under DARPA's Operational Fires program. Is that funky cool...

Saw this on a Ham Radio thread: https://allthatsinteresting.com/engineer-accidentally-takes-lsd Man that would have been a shock to me as I never did hallucinogens. Had a friend in college who did a lot of that stuff in high school and his stories scared the bejesus out of me. He gave it up...

I was glancing through the newspaper obituaries (Peoria Journal Star) as I hate T. V. and online journalists due to their right or left leanings. Print journalists have a tendency to be neutral most of the time. I saw an obit for a Robert "Bob" L. Barker (not the game show guy) and in it, it...

Doing house chores I had a flashback in my mind of a T.V. ad that was so flagrantly misleading from the early 1960's I had to look it up. Did the usual Google search and was led to a "To Tell the Truth" episode from the late 50's or early 1960's. I watched the entire episode and it was...

My family never used or never gave as gifts, gift cards. I had a new furnace and air conditioner installed last September 2019 and got a sizable rebate in the form of a gift card for the first time in my life. I used it for purchases at the grocery store and Wal-mart after “activation”. I was...