Monthly Archive for March, 2006
Page 3 of 6
I finally got around to one of those many things I always tell myself that I'm going to do. This time, it was that I scanned in and adjusted some old Faerie-related artwork and posted it on the site. So, for any of you who have wondered what Faerie wings look like or what sort of geography Faerie has, you can wonder no longer. I should note that I am, by no means, an artist, which is part of why I've avoided additional attempts of trying to depict scenes from the stories. That said, I did start drawing a new version of Jeanne's sword Ilarien on my dry erase board one evening this week when my mind refused to let me sleep without doing so. I may sit down after this and try to sketch out the remainder of the sword.
In the meantime, if anyone is inclined to attempt drawing characters and/or scenes, I would love to see the way you envision them. If you have something you're willing to share, I might even put it up on the site!
ETA: I did draw a new version of Ilarien. The, uh, resemblance to a katana is purely coincidental. Really.
I am being quickly induced never to look at news coverage of a scientific event ever again. On return from my fluids class this morning, I checked my RSS feeds to find a story on an upcoming scramjet test in Australia, courtesy of the BBC. The first sentence should have warned me that, knowing anything about this subject, I shouldn't have continued reading:
But it's the local speed of sound, dammit! But, being an aerospace engineer, something inside me twitches at the thought of being so imprecise. The real pain comes later, when the reporter tries to make a helpful remark about the usefulness of a scramjet engine:
A new jet engine design able to fly seven times the speed of sound is to be test fired over Australia on Friday.Well, okay, it's not totally wrong to say that a Mach 7 engine flies seven times the speed of sound.
A supersonic combustion ramjet, or scramjet, is mechanically very simple. It has no moving parts and takes all of the oxygen it needs to burn hydrogen fuel from the air. This makes it more efficient than conventional rocket engines as they do not need to carry their own oxygen supply, meaning that any vehicle could potentially carry a larger payload.First of all, what did they teach you in grade school about pronouns and antecedents? "This makes it more efficient than conventional rocket engines as they do not need to carry their own oxygen supply." I know that you're trying to say that scramjet engines don't carry their own oxygen supply. But, technically, you just told your reader that rocket engines are air-breathing, which, seeing as propulsion devices are classified as either rockets or air-breathing engines, is, well, impossible. Moreover, when did it become reasonable to compare a rocket to an air-breathing engine in terms of efficiency? They can't do the same things. Rockets can fly outside of an atmosphere. Air-breathing engines can't. Rockets tend to be heavier because they have to carry their own oxygen. But, at least in the sense of conventional chemical rockets, they are more powerful. You can lift enormous loads at higher speeds with a chemical rocket than you can even with the most ambitiously imaginative air-breathing engine. In short: you just don't compare them. They're apples and oranges. Both are fruit, but you only eat one if you're wanting Vitamin C.
The news that "Futurama" is getting another shot on the small screen comes from Billy West himself:
And the other good news is that they're doing 26 new episodes of ''Futurama'' for TV and we're hammering out the deal now.The original plan was to have the DVD's first but that's no longer the case. #If this actually happens, I'll be thrilled, and I know that Mark will be, too. We watch that show like there's no tomorrow.
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