Almost Finished

I am reaching back into my archive for this photo. Back in 2015 when we were visiting Washington, Utah. I must say that the traffic in Washington, Utah is a lot easier to take than the traffic in Washington, D.C. The dead prickly pear plant is what is almost finished. One test of how dry it is in the Southwest is to see if the cactus are dying.

Wasatch Mountains in Spring

Here in Maryland, the leaves are just now coming out on the trees. It seems like we have been in perpetual winter. I do miss the mountains and the deserts of Arizona and Utah. Here is a lovely view of the Wasatch Mountains about an hour from our home in Provo. Right now in Maryland, my view of the parking lot of our apartment complex.

UNIVAC 1232

One of the most dramatic changes during my lifetime has been the development of powerful computers. Computers such as this UNIVAC 1232, were the ones I knew about when I was much younger. The mechanism on the right in the large blue box is the tape reader. It used huge spools of magnetic tape for data storage. I can distinctly remember seeing these machines when I was a teenager. This machine was developed and manufactured by Sperry Univac's St. Paul, Minnesota division and was the military version of the UNIVAC 490. It used transistors and had a 30-bit word length and came supplied with 32,000 words of memory or about 123 K. In contrast, my iPhone has 256 GB of storage. That is about 268,435,456 Kilobytes. I am currently using 8 Terabyte hard drives or about 8,000,000,000 Kilobytes.

Maynard Dixon

One of the painters I like the most is Maynard Dixon. He was born in Fresno, Califonia in 1875 and died in Tucson, Arizona in 1946. Brigham Young University has an extensive collection of his paintings and many are on the walls of the Special Collections Library in the Harold B. Lee Library on campus. There are always a few in the Art Museum on campus also. This is an unusual painting from the Smithsonian American Art Museum called "Shapes of Fear." You can read more about Maynard Dixon and see more of his paintings at MaynardDixon.org.

The Business End of the Space Shuttle Discovery

The Space Shuttle Discovery has more spaceflights than any other spacecraft to date. Quoting from the Wikipedia article entitled, "Space Shuttle Discovery,"

Discovery became the third operational orbiter to enter service, preceded by Columbia and Challenger. It embarked on its last mission, STS-133, on February 24, 2011 and touched down for the final time at Kennedy Space Center on March 9, having spent a cumulative total of almost a full year in space. Discovery performed both research and International Space Station (ISS) assembly missions. It also carried the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit. Discovery was the first operational shuttle to be retired, followed by Endeavour and then Atlantis.

The Space Shuttle Discovery is housed in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. By the way, it is really huge compared to almost all the other airplanes or spacecraft housed in the museum.

SR-71 Blackbird

One of the most recognizable aircraft of the United States Air Force is the SR-71 Blackbird. Here is one at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. Here is a summary from Wikipedia about the airplane.

The Lockheed SR-71 "Blackbird" is a long-range, Mach 3+ strategic reconnaissance aircraft that was operated by the United States Air Force. It was developed as a black project from the Lockheed A-12 reconnaissance aircraft in the 1960s by Lockheed and its Skunk Works division. American aerospace engineer Clarence "Kelly" Johnson was responsible for many of the design's innovative concepts. During aerial reconnaissance missions, the SR-71 operated at high speeds and altitudes to allow it to outrace threats. If a surface-to-air missile launch were detected, the standard evasive action was simply to accelerate and outfly the missile. The SR-71 was designed with a reduced radar cross-section.

Frowny Face on the Space Shuttle

I can only conjecture that it is sad to be cooped up in a hanger and not flying off into space. This is a fabulous museum. This is the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia.