Oklahoma City Police Department reports show that Whyte and another man were in the living room of an apartment in the 1400 block of NW 16 Street when they began arguing if Star Wars or Star Trek was better. The victim told police he became frustrated and stated “You’re just a trick” before walking back to his room.
Eventually some stabbenings happen.
“You’re just a trick” is an example of alienese that the article sadly leaves untranslated.
This can, of course, be politically interpretted any of a number of ways. Some will immediately recall Orwells line about a picture of the future, and, if they are of a mind to, will interpret pence to be a monster with monstrous goals. Others will see it in terms of “America, frak yeah!” and will be enthused.
And then there’s those like me, who if we were the optimistic types would be enthused, but we’ve been burned a few dozen too many times. If only Pence not only means this, but can make it happen:
“The American space program has a champion in the President of the United States,” Pence said, adding that the White House plans to “usher in a new era” of American space leadership.
“Liberty” was a short-lived ATK launch vehicle concept. This design arose in 2011, following after the Ares 1. Where Ares 1 was a single 5-segment Shuttle booster derivative topped by an all-new hydrogen/oxygen second stage, Liberty used the same booster but topped by the core stage of an Ariane V. ATK believed that they could get one of these flying with astronauts as soon as 2015, but NASA decided to not fund the effort and ATK abandoned the project in 2012.
ATK handed out some promotional cards a few years back at one of the big Shuttle motor tests, scanned in below. I’ve posted the high-rez versions of the scans to the APR Patreon Dropbox (in the 2017-04 APR Extras folder, because I forgot to mention that here months ago).
If you are interested in accessing these and other aerospace historical goodies, consider signing up for the APR Patreon.
The video below is aimed at the video gamer, but I think the narrator nails the essence of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos, and what a *lot* of people get wrong about it. Cthulhu is not a giant dumb monster, Godzilla with face tentacles; instead, Cthulhu is supremely intelligent, supremely malign and completely invulnerable not only to humanities weapons, but to our understanding. Cthulhu and his ilk cannot be fought; they can only – maybe – be evaded. Your hope lies not in victory, but in remaining un-noticed, or in simply not being anywhere near where Cthuhu might happen to be. If The Stars Are Right, if you are supremely lucky you will have by that point developed time travel, stargates or warp drive that can get you the hell away before he notices you.
“What they get wrong about Cthulhu” is something that covers a lot of authors as well as game designers. There have been a lot of short stories and books written in recent years that simply get the Lovecraftian world *wrong.* A lot of it has come about as people try to update the mythos for modern sensibilities… yes, Lovecraft was a racist, but trying to wrap the mythos around morality tales completely misses the point of Lovecrafts cosmic horror. Think back to the best of his cosmic horror tales: do you actually remember any of the human characters as actual characters? I sure don’t. Any of them could have been rich or poor, smart or dumb, left-handed or righties, short or tall, chipper or dour, friendly or curmudgeons, men or women, black or white… and none of it would a have made the slightest difference. Cthulhu, Yog Sothoth, the Deep ones…none of ’em give a damn. It doesn’t matter if you’ve lived a life of privilege and joy, or have been oppressed and stomped on by life… you’re all equally crunchy.And trying to make many of Lovecraft’s non-human entities at all sympathetic is *really* missing the point. I’ve seen a number of tales that try to draw parallels between the government rounding up Deep Ones at the end of “Shadow Over Innsmouth” and governments rounding up ethnic groups and either segregating them or trying to wipe them out. But what that seems to miss is the fact that the Deep Ones not only kinda want to wipe out humanity, they have the power to do it, but they’re simply too lethargic or distracted to do so. The Deep ones aren’t simply victims of unthinking prejudice; they are *active* villains. Worse, they are apparently in cahoots with even greater threats perhaps even Cthulhu. So the right moral to draw from the end of “Innsmouth” isn’t “it’s bad to inter funny-lookin’ foreigners,” it’s “be careful about these guys so you don’t get ’em riled up so that they destroy the entire surface of the Earth.”
Similarly, there are a number of references to human Cthulhu (and other entity) cultists in Lovecrafts work. But these aren;t poor, misunderstood folk who simply have a different religion… these people are, by and large, *nuts* in a diagnosable sense. These people aren’t just worshipping different, they are hoping for, and trying to aid, the extermination of mankind. Screw those guys.
On September 1, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” will return to movie screens for one week. I don’t know if it will be “digitally enhanced,” but it seems probable that it will at least be cleaned up. If’n it’s showing at a theater anywhere near me, you can bet your ass I’m’a going. It, like “Star Wars” which premiered only half a year or so before it, has held up surprisingly well. Unlike “Star Wars,” I never saw “Close Encounters” in the theater, but it has all the hallmarks of a flick that demands a large screen.
And so long as they’re throwing this one back out there, why not:
1: “2001: A Space Odyssey”
2: “Star Trek The Motion Picture”
3: “The Black Hole”
4: “Blade Runner”
What else? Disney’s “20,000 Leagues Under The Sea?” “Patton?” “Raiders of the Lost Ark?”
I can’t really blame the people in the video for being so twisted up. They are themselves victims… not of an evil racist America, but of a great many people – in the media, in the pulpits, in the government – who make bank off convincing people that they are oppressed, and that the way to deal with it is to keep themselves down.
OK, yeah, I featured one of Exurb1a’s videos yesterday, but the guys content is almost entirely good and worth watching. He humorously blends sci-fi with philosophy and science, and sometimes something that vaguely resembles music.
Some good examples:
Basically the history of rockets, done right.
Also:
And this one, which was chuckleworthy throughout… until the very end when I actually did Laugh Out Loud:
Ah, city life. With the being trapped in metal tubes with belligerent drunks, what’s not to like?
There is clearly a hero in this story… but I suspect that the hero may be in some legal trouble for having struck first. Still, it seems he did what he set out to, and did it well.
