Uberfetus's New Writeups

NACA Makes Ready (idea)

2002-06-13T18:19:55Z

NACA Makes Ready

Throughout the spring and into the summer of 1958, as the administration bill made its way through Congress, NACA had given its full participation and support to the man-in-space planning sessions of ARPA and the Air Force. But at the same time the research engineers at Langley and on Wallops Island were pushing their own studies. They could see the opportunity to carry out a manned [94] satellite project coming their way. By early spring all NACA laboratories were urgently engaged in basic studies in such areas as propulsion, spacecraft configuration, orbit and recovery, guidance and control, structures and materials, instrumentation, and aerodynamic heating. Ames and Langley researchers were conducting wind tunnel experiments and rocket launches with models of orbital vehicles.⁶⁰

At the Langley laboratory, proponents and would-be managers of a manned space flight program studied the nonlifting approach to orbital…

Man in Space Soonest? (idea)

2002-06-13T15:34:32Z

Man in Space Soonest?

[91] Officially NACA still was acting as consultant and tester for the Air Force and industry on spacecraft design and development. ARDC had sent its abbreviated development plan for a manned orbital capsule, based on conclusions reached at the Ballistic Missile Division conference, to Headquarters USAF on March 14. Five days later Air Force Under Secretary Marvin A. MacIntyre requested $133 million from ARPA for manned satellite development during fiscal year 1959. On the same day that Eisenhower proposed the civilian agency to Congress, General White, Air Force Chief of Staff, secured approval for a man-in-space project from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Despite the introduction of the administration bill in Congress and the resultant tabling the next month of the proposed agreement between White and Hugh Dryden for a joint Air Force-NACA manned satellite project, NACA…

Sex Style (thing)

2002-04-06T07:57:10Z

Fresh off his genre-redefining Dr. Octagon project, Kool Keith joined up with Kutmasta Kurt to drop Sex Style in early 1997. More explicit than any of his previous work (and you must consider that his previous work had included an entire album about a gynecologist from Jupiter), this is first-class porno rap. Part of this album's success is that Keith never comes across as your archtypical inner city player, freaking hos and smacking bitches; he instead approaches the sexual topic as someone who has spent a lot of time in dark rooms jacking off to X-rated videos. As such, Keith's perverse rhymes never stray into the boring misogynistic themes we've heard a million times ever since 2 Live Crew picked up their mics... not an easy task when you realize he's singing about anal sex, douching, water sports, and sticking lollipops in, er, impure places.

The bluntness of his rhymes is offset by the implicit understanding that it'…

Do the Mario (thing)

2002-01-09T02:11:20Z

The live action segments of the Super Mario Bros. Super Show never failed to disturb, but this near-surreal ending to each episode took things to the next level. The superbly cast Captain Lou Albano would enter the seizure-like trance known as "the Mario", and inexplicably begin disappearing and reappearing all over the screen, which contained an animated desert landscape seemingly right out of Road Runner cartoons. The credits would roll while "Mario" implored viewers to "take one step, and then again" in a voice halfway between singing and yelling. The song and dance were clearly created in less than five minutes.

Kids loved it. Although an episode of SMBSS always created more questions than it answered – Is today Friday, aka "Zelda day"? Does Mario wash his hair with the pizzaphone? What the fuck is the Radigator? – we could always count on it ending with Mario shaking his ass around…

KXJB (thing)

2001-12-29T04:55:06Z

KXJB should be famous worldwide because of its transmitting tower, the second tallest manmade structure in the world. However, North Dakota's television towers don't have the big money backing of such tourism-hungry endeavors as the CN Tower, Petronas Towers, or Sears Tower, so you've likely never heard of KXJB.

In addition to pure height, there's some history here, too. KXJB's giant 2060-foot tower was originally built in 1966, 38 miles northwest of Fargo, near the town of Galesburg. On the morning of February 14, 1968, the structure came crashing down as a Marine helicopter collided with the tower. All four occupants of the helicopter were killed, and the station's building was seriously damaged. CBS4 was off the air for 8 days while the station prepared its old 1085-foot tower to fill the giant's shoes. Meanwhile, a new 2060-foot tower was built on the Galesburg site, and within five months, KXJB was once again broadcasting from the world's…

Stranglehold (idea)

2001-12-09T03:44:57Z

Am eight-and-a-half-minute Ted Nugent classic, from his eponymous 1975 solo debut. This grinding, emotional track has all the attitude of someone holding a knife in your face and smiling about it. The morbid (but typically high octane) lyrics are about threatening and beating a woman. As wacky, ultra-energetic, and occasionally misogynistic as the Nuge is, the song does not condone mistreating women. It's just telling a scary tale that is unfortunately played out in real life every day, and infusing it with Ted's "don't get in my way" outlook on life. Besides, the Nuge would say, why hurt women when the forest spirits keep stocking your backyard with fresh deer? In any case, there's more musical ideas here than most other 70's electric guitar music combined, so just nervously smile and hope that he's not singing about your neck.

Here I come again now, baby, like a dog in heat.
You tell it's me by the clamor now, baby. I like to tear up the…