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“The Words That Made Us”, terrific and admiring account of the unprecedented brilliance in the founding of the US, ad well as a candid account of morally unsavory compromises.
 
"Nuclear America" traces the very first origins of the initial postulates and discoveries from seminal pioneers in chemistry and physics, related to the rise of weapons and peace time power generation. So good, ai'm saving it for a mini vacay with a hot tub and adult beverages next week. Already chewed thru 1/6th and forced myself to put it down. Lucky I have 3 others on the burners to take it's place. Check out "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", a revered classic that deserved revisiting after a few decades.
 
"Nuclear America" traces the very first origins of the initial postulates and discoveries from seminal pioneers in chemistry and physics, related to the rise of weapons and peace time power generation. So good, ai'm saving it for a mini vacay with a hot tub and adult beverages next week. Already chewed thru 1/6th and forced myself to put it down.
Check out the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History in Albuquerque NM if you have the chance. Sounds just like the book you are reading but with actual hardware you can look at and touch. Highly recommended. I was there last week and it is a magnificent museum.
https://www.nuclearmuseum.org/see/exhibits
BTW, I currently work with the grandson of Mr Oppenheimer :) .
 
Check out the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History in Albuquerque NM if you have the chance. Sounds just like the book you are reading but with actual hardware you can look at and touch. Highly recommended. I was there last week and it is a magnificent museum.
Seconded on the recommendation.

My grandpa’s cousin lived out there and I went to see her a few times when I was young. She was a nuclear physicist who worked on the H-bomb projects in the 1950s. Her husband was also a nuclear physicist, he worked on the Manhattan Project and later contributed to the development of the H-bombs as well as very small tactical nuclear weapons like the Genie rocket.



By the time I was old enough to go out to Albuquerque for a visit, he had had a really bad stroke and could only say a few words intelligibly, but as we wheeled him past the bust of Edward Teller he very clearly uttered “son of a bitch!”
 
Check out the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History in Albuquerque NM if you have the chance. Sounds just like the book you are reading but with actual hardware you can look at and touch. Highly recommended. I was there last week and it is a magnificent museum.
https://www.nuclearmuseum.org/see/exhibits
BTW, I currently work with the grandson of Mr Oppenheimer :) .
Excellent museum, I visited it during a business trip when it was still on Sandia base. I recall the building across the street was the "Combined Services Nuclear Weapons School", or sommthing close to that...
 
Just finished "The Men" by Sandra Newman. It's a dystopian fiction where everywhere around the world, in an instant, anyone with a Y chromosome disappears (including fetuses, interestingly), leaving the remaining women (and yes, notably, a few trans men) behind to pick up the pieces. It focuses on a few main characters and delves into their backstory while gradually working through the progress of the world over the next year or so. IT was an interesting premise, and I was looking forward to the grand reveal. The missing men are, to some extent, seen again on an enigmatic tv/web show (called The Men), under circumstances that are disturbing and mysterious.

We gradually get a sense of what's going on, but I was disappointed by the ending, in that not enough was explained for my tastes. I gave it three stars, being generous.
 
Selections from "Hidden Riches - A sourcebook for the comparative study of the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near East" by Christopher Hays, as well as various creation myths/stories from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Israel, etc.
 
"The Dark" by Jeremy Robinson (Audible). Read by R.C. Bray (excellent reader). Started with "Mind Bullet" which was a daily deal and got hooked on his books. For most of his works it is a little bit of Stephan King only with realistic editing, more humor and a generally more satisfying ending. Robinson doesn't have the word skills of King but he does a very good job. "The Dark" is horror but it does not depend on the shock factor as much as how the characters figure out things. Albeit there were a couple of passages where the 'yuck' factor appeared. It has doses of what it is like to have PTSD (as does many of his books because he has PTSD) and you end up liking the characters - and maybe relating a bit. And the storyline is super.
 
Instrument Flying Handbook
and
Fair Blows the Wind, Louis L'Amour. It's an audio book. I've "read" a few dozens of his audio books and just about all of them when they came out in paperback.

I recently moved back to TX from NW NM and my new position means I now have a 1.5 hour commute, one way. Thankfully gas prices didn't skyrocket just before the "promotion"... oh wait... I guess that I could move to Houston... Um... no...

I'm also working in my instrument rating and the instructor / aircraft are... drum roll please... 1.5 hours away (no... there's nothing closer). So... I get a lot of "reading time" every week now (20-ish hours). And no rocket time. I need to find another club. I really enjoyed the club in 4 Corners. I was going to try to get my L2 at the end of this year but with no time to build that's not likely.
 
Hi Mike,

I can recommend two clubs in the general area that are both quite good (Not too many bad folks in rocketry!)

I fly with Austin Area Rocketry Group, when I can. Our main launch site is in Hutto TX, which for you looks like it would be (drum roll please...) 1.5 hours away! We fly on the first Saturday of each month. We've got a lot of people who can help with, and sign off on certs up tp Level 3, both Tripoli and NAR.

There is also Tripoli Houston who used to fly at an airfield in Hearn. Not sure if that info is still valid...

According to my map, Hearn would be about 1.75 hours away, so at least it breaks the norm!

It would be fun to see you at a launch!

Mike

BTW - I'm a big Louis L'Amour fan, too...

Oh, and just to make this post relevant to the thread:

By Any Means Necessary by William Burrows. Covers secret U.S. aerial intelligence and recon programs during the Cold War.

The Complete Electric Bass Player by Chuck Rainey. First in a series by quite possibly the best there has ever been in the business. You have heard him, you just didn't know it (The Sanford and Son theme song, for one)!

A couple of others as well. I always have three or four books going at any one time... :rolleyes:
 
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If it's "only" 90 miles I guess I had better get to building a rocket then. My LOC IV (certified Level 1 with it) had a motor failure that pretty much destroyed it. The wide end of the motor that seats in the end of the motor retainer... you know... the thing that prevents it from flying through the middle of the rocket, sheared off at launch. I made a post about it, yes I reported it, no I haven't received the replacement yet but that's my fault. I got transferred back home before I was able to start building the Wildman Competitor 4 and I haven't ordered another motor yet (combining shipping). Of the 4 people that fly at the club in NM, 3 of us have had motor failures. (2) CTI (mine, I540-16A, one of the L3 guys. CTI J530), and (1) research motor, N3383,14,647Ns, that CATO'd and significantly cut short his attempt to tickle the edge of FL 600 (our first time to get that launch window that I'm aware of). I think he simmed over 40k but that data is outside of my memory buffer.

And just to keep it relevant, I finished Fair Blows the Wind and started The Man from the Broken Hills, also by Louis L'Amour.

Mike, the other one or more...
 
"The Creature From Jekyll Island" by Edward Griffin
Want to know about the Federal Reserve? How it started? What it does? This is the book for you.
 
Hi Mike,

I can recommend two clubs in the general area that are both quite good (Not too many bad folks in rocketry!)

I fly with Austin Area Rocketry Group, when I can. Our main launch site is in Hutto TX, which for you looks like it would be (drum roll please...) 1.5 hours away! We fly on the first Saturday of each month. We've got a lot of people who can help with, and sign off on certs up tp Level 3, both Tripoli and NAR.

There is also Tripoli Houston who used to fly at an airfield in Hearn. Not sure if that info is still valid...

According to my map, Hearn would be about 1.75 hours away, so at least it breaks the norm!

It would be fun to see you at a launch!
Figured I'd add my $0.02...
Austin Area Rocketry Group's web site has detailed location & launch info.
https://www.aarg.org/And Tripoli Houston does launch at Hearne still... second Saturday usually. Need to contact them for the airport gate code.
https://tripolihouston.wixsite.com/website
Added edit:
Mike:
There is a gentleman from Houston that occasionally flies into the Hearne airport for launches and parks on the edge of the southern taxiway. That would make it convenient...
 
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Just finished Jim Hines Terminal Peace. It's a very good conclusion to his Janitors of the Post Apocalypse trilogy
 
I just finished the 1st Book in Michael Jenne's "Blue Gemini" series and I'll be picking up the rest of the Trilogy at the beginning of October when my Navy disability check comes in and the bills are paid. Mr. Jenne, if You haven't read any of the Trilogy yet not only makes You feel like YOU are there, but like HE is there with You! W/o spoiling anything, a LOT of the action takes place at Wright-Patterson A.F.B. (located about 6 blocks from where I live) and being on the base (commissary and Barber shop, mostly) I can tell You, Mr. Jenne gets it right!!!!!!!!!! I HIGHLY recommend "Blue Gemini" and it's follow ups to one and all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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