Post Ap2G2sDRLMpoEisBxw by Linkshaender@bildung.social
 (DIR) More posts by Linkshaender@bildung.social
 (DIR) Post #Ap1EKubEpDlTmAWBhA by TerryHancock@realsocial.life
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       SPACE MYTHS:The Fisher Space Pen did NOT cost NASA millions of dollars to develop.It cost them $0. FISHER put in the R&D money on that.NASA only bought the pens as off-the-shelf products. They are nice pens.And while the Russians DID "use pencils", they didn't really like them, and adopted the pens.See, inhaling graphite dust and wood shavings in freefall is not that healthy.There are a LOT of stories about "government waste" that are basically just bullshit, like this one. Be aware.
       
 (DIR) Post #Ap1ToPcC5Wqtg9URpQ by mikey@friendsofdesoto.social
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       @TerryHancock Also graphite dust is conductive, and can short circuit electronics if its just floating around.
       
 (DIR) Post #Ap1U5x0DCwwO9Q5Tg8 by pseudo_ursus@universeodon.com
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       @TerryHancock People always forget how common grease pencils were/are in engineering and aeronautic circles.
       
 (DIR) Post #Ap1VYhN6VA7g1c4CRc by LockEx@ioc.exchange
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       @TerryHancock I love the Fisher Space Pens. They're my favorite
       
 (DIR) Post #Ap1iQgY4yb56Ymi3u4 by RethinkJeff@mastodon.social
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       @TerryHancock The wild thing about this story is how it's morphed over my lifetime; it was always told to me like it was about american technological superiority vs russian peasant trudging. Maybe I was just missing the point back then?
       
 (DIR) Post #Ap1utZF8PrYhkZO3hQ by alameth@fosstodon.org
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       @TerryHancock The Space Pen legend and it's proper resolution figure prominently in the Bollywood engineering college comedy movie _3 Idiots_. A fun watch if you have the time.
       
 (DIR) Post #Ap20nrX66NoOSiS4dU by sldrant@mastodon.social
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       @TerryHancock I also thought ordinary biro pens also worked fine in space as surface tension is enough for them to work without gravity. I'd heard the fancy fisher ones are apparently useful underwater, may just be rumour...
       
 (DIR) Post #Ap25nGHR6cUGhDevzc by avadeaux@mastodon.nu
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       @TerryHancock What’s wrong with felt-tips then?
       
 (DIR) Post #Ap28ZIoXBiVsMZAyOW by chewie@mammut.gogreenit.net
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       @TerryHancock great to know!I used to have a space pen when i was a kid, but I lost it 😔 I never heard this side of the story!
       
 (DIR) Post #Ap2EiCjRlmeppaQNBg by Hasufin@mastodon.social
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       @TerryHancock I maintain the primary driver of government waste us the incessant search for government waste. Surely with an eighth audit and a fifth inventory control system we'll find the waste!
       
 (DIR) Post #Ap2G2sDRLMpoEisBxw by Linkshaender@bildung.social
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       @TerryHancock Also, having something like wood shavings and graphite dust in an atmosphere with 60% oxygen might not be the best of ideas. 😉
       
 (DIR) Post #Ap2GyE0H0hDQJe3t8i by amalgam_@mastodon.social
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       @TerryHancock So what was Fishers RnD cost? Was it close to a million or not?I mean the story still holds if someone else paid the bill. Outside the US this has never been a story about gov spending, more about practicality vs over-engineering
       
 (DIR) Post #Ap2evR0qaEmWh7X4rI by cazabon@mindly.social
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       @TerryHancock My favourite #debunking of the "government paid $EXCESSIVE for $THING" kind of story was by Jerry #Pournelle.  It's currently offline, and archive.org is still recovering, so I can't link it.  Actual numbers below are made up because I don't remember the exact figures, but the gist is correct.It was the "#Pentagon paid $17,000 for a #toilet seat" one.  What actually happened was that the Pentagon needed to procure more toilet seats for the B-52 bomber - the planes were (and still are!) old and stuff wears out or gets damaged.  There was no remaining stock of parts.The problem was that the #manufacturer had long ago junked the tooling used to make the parts (they were metal, requiring tool & die etc).  Making that tooling is quite expensive - it's difficult, skilled work.  Other costs involved in getting a #manufacturing line set up are also expensive.  And they couldn't justify buying and storing tons of extra toilet seats.So what you get is a high fixed #cost to rebuild a line, divided by a relatively small number of finished articles, giving an apparently absurd price per unit.  Say, a million dollars to make 60 replacement toilet seats to original spec.And that gives... $16,667 per seat.  And a great, totally #misleading #headline.#B52 #B52Bomber #ToiletSeat #GovernmentWaste #waste #procurement
       
 (DIR) Post #Ap2n2jZUmPMrujjM48 by bjn2@mastodon.social
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       @TerryHancock Myth busting is appreciated, but graphite dust? I very much doubt that's a real problem unless someone's big into drawing images from their dark angst in freefall. A mechanical pencil has no shavings. But Snopes mentions that pencil points break off, and you don't want debris like that adrift in a spacecraft.
       
 (DIR) Post #Ap34B098jkjurEvmHg by jwcph@helvede.net
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       @TerryHancock Also: The same kind of people who love bullshit stories about wasteful government spending will either be silent about or outright applaud private companies wildly overcharging the government & just generally pumping taxpayer money into their own pockets in multitudes of fraudulent ways. That's business acumen, you see, and that's outright heroic. These people do double standards extremely, extremely well, in case that wasn't clear.