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A while back we looked at Doppler RADAR and its importance to weather prediction. What about when you need the miracle of Christian Doppler’s discovery in a storm that may or may not cross a fixed Doppler RADAR installation? Enter Center for Severe Weather Research’s Doppler on Wheels (DOW) trucks. It seems to be Truck Tuesday here on the Toasters, so I’m sharing with you one of the coolest truck-based pieces of awesome I’ve seen all week. This last weekend in Prescott, AZ was the annual Overland Expo. Overland enthusiasts from around the world gather to gaze upon the latest and greatest in [...]
Let’s say you have an award-winning punkin’ chunkin’ air cannon and a mobile home. What do you do? If you’re Chunkin’ Under da Influence, you throw some dogs on the BBQ and test fire your punkin’ chunkin’ air cannon at the mobile home. Seems perfectly logical to me. Hit the jump for the video! The HVAC blower in my Cherokee died about a month ago. It was cool enough and I got enough air through the vents when at speed that it wasn’t a big deal, but it needed to be replaced. This weekend I made time to replace it because we are having a bit of [...]
Lure coursing is a sport typically for sight hounds like greyhounds and whippets. “Rabbits” (usually white plastic bags) are tied to a string loop, which goes around pulleys and is driven by a small electric motor. It’s a fairly simple setup, but dogs of all breeds love it. Well, except my dog who isn’t fooled by the plastic bags. You can hit the jump for a video of some dogs doing the lure course. What’s my point? It’s the weekend. Get out there and do something. Have fun, even if it’s something simple. The idea of the easter egg is software goes back ages. Another computer tech that goes back ages is Atari’s Breakout! game. Combine the two, mix in some Google Image Search, and you get a playable bit of awesome. Give it a try! Just type in “Atari Breakout” into a GIS search box [...]
The General Services Administration is one of those large, nebulous government agencies. In fact, it is responsible for basically all of the supply and transportation for the federal government. When it has equipment that has been removed from service it auctions it. These are those famous government auctions you hear about someone buying 50,000 vacuum tubes for $1 from. Well, this auction will cost you a bit more to enter (a $50,000 deposit is required to bid), but you could walk away with a piece of history — Air Force One. Over on our sister site, Hooniverse, they asked about doing a road trip on a motorcycle today. That got me to thinking. A road trip on a motorcycle would most certainly involve staying in hotels and/or camping. Hence, the advent of the recreational vehicle. You take your accommodations on your journey! In the [...]
As a weapon system, the V-2 was fairly ineffective. It’s real purpose was to terrorize and punish Germany’s enemies, hence it’s use on England and Antwerp. More people died producing the V-2 than were killed by it in military use. At the time the V-2 program went into high gear, Germany had bomber systems capable of delivering bombs and rockets to London with higher accuracy and at less cost to Germany in terms of both Reichsmarks and diversion of resources. Despite all this, Germany pressed on with the V-2 program. The Fuhrer wanted to terrorize London, and he wanted a propaganda win for his loyal subjects. It’s an absolutely horrible weapon system, and it’s failure as a weapon system should have relegated it to a historical footnote. It did inflict significant damage on its targets, though, and it laid the groundwork for all modern rocket systems. For that reason, it is quite important. Hit the jump for some video of test failures of the V-2 rocket. |
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