Category: Guest Contributors

Guest Contributor – Tregonsee – 03APR2026 – Photo

photog Guest Contributors, Photography, Tregonsee ,

This was shot in the experimental Aircraft section of the Museum of the USAF.
Details of the shot are that it was shot on a Canon EOS Rebel using a 28 MM lens af F4 1/60th second exposure ISO 800 handheld

The view looks out from the Valkyrie Cafe. The large aircraft in the foreground is the last example of the XB-70 Valkyrie bomber. Also in the frame are the YF-12 (an interceptor variant of the SR71/A-12), two gemini capsules including the Air Force Blue Gemini prototype (never flown) 2 X-24 lifting bodies (famous from the opening sequence of 6 Million Dollar Man), and barely visible to the far right at the back is an X-15.
IMG_0062.JPG
I am a bit surprised that I got as much depth of field as I did at F4, but I was shooting in shutter priority mode as I didn’t think I could hand hold it much below 1/60th

 

Tom’s World – 31March2026 – Photo

photog Guest Contributors, Photography, TomD ,

Tom | Flickr

TomD

If you’ve ever been into cameras you’ll notice occasional affinity between a particular camera and lens combo. One such pairing is my #2 camera, a Sony a7IV, a Tamron 70-300 f5.6 zoom. The shots are crystal clear, the colors vibrant and a nice smooth bokeh (the out of focus area). The lens isn’t expensive as things go these days but I consistently get great results.

DSC00221-2

DSC00205
DSC00205

Support Culture on the Right

photog Current Events, Guest Contributors, Reviews, The Portly Politico ,

Tyler over at the Portly Politico put up a post (see link below) to convince us to support artists on thew Right.  He includes links to his work and other right-wing artists (and even me!).

Well, how can I disagree with that?  I can tell you personally trying to get your “art” noticed in the digital marketplace is no mean feat.  So kudos to him for speaking up.

Support My Right-Wing Culture

Guest Contributor – ArthurinCali – 27FEB2026 – AI, Yes and No

photog ArthurinCali, Current Events, Guest Contributors, Science , , ,

I’m no Luddite regarding technology advances, especially regarding AI. It definitely has a place in the 21st century and in society as a powerful tool and emergent technology that can help humanity progress. However, the almost childlike faith many exhibit on its ability to never be mistaken is a troublesome factor. Numerous examples have been pointed out where AI LLMs get historical facts incorrect, or outright repeat Progressive-Liberal dogma verbatim when asked to clarify a social issue. Not really a good development to polarize public opinion on a technology they are promising will revolutionize the world. Over 400 AI data centers are currently under construction with another 900+ scheduled in the US alone. With over 1500 expected to be in operation around 2030, these questions of authenticity and quality of information provided will become more salient to the viability of AI. As to the effects on entertainment, I believe that the AI slop will become popular to a segment of the public, but another effect of this will be that human crafted works of art; whether in cinema and literature will also become more valuable to many. It will be the difference between “store bought” and “homemade” so to speak.

Guest Contributor – Tregonsee – 15FEB2026 – The Wrath of Khan-ecticut

photog Guest Contributors, Movie Reviews, Reviews, Science Fiction / Fantasy, SF&F Movie Reviews, Star Trek, Tregonsee ,

I do remember seeing Wrath of Khan in the theater on opening night. It was a strange day, Raining heavily when we tried to go to the matinee at a multiplex (4 theaters Wonder of Wonders!) in Orange CT. Ultimately that attempt failed as we didn’t quite make it to New Haven as my 1974 Duster was having alternator problems with the belt slipping due to the rain and splashing. We limped it back to my Buddies house grabbed a snack and hopped in his family’s ancient Suburban. Went to the 6 PM showing and watched the movie. We were enthralled (and nearly teary eyed at the “I am and always have been your friend” line as well as playing of Amazing Grace). We had noticed the rain was LOUD at times almost drowning the dialogue. Got out to Monsoon level rain and a parking lot with 3-5″ of water/ Getting home was a challenge, Rt 95 was closed in Branford due to several accidents and deep water. We were diverted eventually choosing a path along the coastal roads. Came to a bridge over a normally gentle stream running out to Long Island Sound. The bridge is normally about 4′ above the stream. The stream was now a 2′ deep torrent over the bridge. Being young stupid guys (college age) we decided to forge on. I got out and walked ahead of the Suburban to check the depth (I hope you realize this was a very bad choice and I am lucky to be writing this some 40+ years later: DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES DO THIS !!!). As we came off the bridge there was a low spot ahead and so I was still the depth gauge. Shortly I felt my knee bump something. It was the bumper of a Ford Taurus wagon submerged such that maybe 6″ of its roof was sticking out of the water ahead of me. Needless to say we turned around and spent a couple hours fishing about for a way back to my buddy’s home that would be passable with the 2′ or so of clearance the Suburban had. That said Wrath of Khan was well worth the journey.

Guest Contributor – Tregonsee – 12FEB2026 – LOR OR VOR

photog Current Events, Guest Contributors, Science , , , ,

There are 3 basic strategies to get to the moon. Direct is the is the first, the ship/capsule takes off from Earth goes to the moon, lands and then some part of that capsule/ship takes off from the moon and returns to earth. Because you’re carrying LOTS of weight you don’t need at various points (e.g. the reentry shield on the capsule is dead weight as you land on the moon) the whole thing is VERY heavy. The rockets to do this are immense (e.g. the early NOVA concept https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_(NASA_rocket) later repurposed but never used for mars exploration). The other two alternatives are Earth Orbit Rendezvous (EOR) or Lunar Orbit Rendezvous (LOR). In EOR, you go up to a waiting lunar specific lander board it and use it for the earth to moon trip land and return to your Earth/space vehicle. This is the Von Braun/2001 model. It’s one weakness is it usually requires in space refueling of your lunar transit/lander vehicle. This is kind of what I suspect the initial SpaceX model SEEMS to be headed for with a combination of Dragon Crew, Starship cargo/fuel ferry, and Lunar Starship for transit and landing. The Apollo (and current Artemis) use LOR, with Apollo sort of used a mixed model to keep the LEM as light as possible (for a great dramatiztion of this find episode 9 of From the Earth to the Moon, also good discussion of LOR vs EOR). I think SpaceX/Musk have realized lunar Starship is overkill for the task presented, thus making EOR more feasible. They also know Starship overall depends on refueling; if they can’t do that it is kind of game over for Starship for any purpose other than LEO delivery of cargo/ satellites.

Tom’s World – 11FEB2026 – Red Planet Blues

photog Guest Contributors, Science, TomD , , ,

Tom | Flickr

TomD

Getting to and from Mars is easy as long as you have Delta V. You need a velocity of approx. 7 mile/second to break earth orbit and around 20m/s to get to mars and more to match mars orbit. And that’s minimum energy, you’d probably want to double that at minimum to get the total ET down to something humans could handle.

I’ll leave it up to you to calculate the total energy requirement in joules or whatever to accelerate that much mass and fuel to a total Delta V of around 50-60 miles/second and how to do that with chemical reactions.

We got Voyager out of the solar system and up to 25-30 miles/second total energy but that’s when you have years to hop from planet to planet sling shotting around each to gain velocity.

Practical Mars will have to wait on fission at minimum or fusion and you still need reaction mass.

The moon is cool.

Back in the Apollo days of the early 70’s, I met a couple of students from U of Wisconsin on sabbatical traveling around the country and working odd jobs for cash. They were only here (Atlanta) for a couple of months before moving on and we got along save several heated debates on the Apollo program. It was their position that Apollo and all similar projects be immediately defunded until human perfection was achieved, though they didn’t state it in such stark terms, the implication was such had they the desire and ability to extrapolate. Even at the time I knew that was absurd and the purest fairyland fantasy because that condition would never be met and the net effect would be to condemn the planet to the darkness. It was my 1st exposure to hard-hard idealistic leftism. I had already left the Marine Corps but that train of thought and logic not common there then or now, I suspect.