At long last, SpaceX landed a Falcon 9 on a barge out at sea. Even better, this flight launched an inflatable “room” to the Space Station.
And the crowd goes *nuts.*
The whole webcast:
So, now they’ve gone and done it… they’ve proved that it is possible to land a rocket on a (relatively) cheap barge out at sea. Gonna make all the other rocket out there look kinda… dumb.
On every conceivable technical level, this photo is awful, first and foremost by being horribly out of focus. But I like it not for what it shows, but for what was *about* to happen. This here is Bruce sitting in the little plastic-sticks-and-nylon-fabric cat “playhouse” Promptly after this photo he went back to the task he was performing just before the photo: madly (and futilely) attempting to dig through the side wall of the playhouse. Even through the bad photography you can kinda make out the crazy.
I’ve always thought the show itself was awful (especially season 2), but the spaceships in “Space 1999” were indisputably awesome, especially the Eagle Transporter. There have been a number of kits of this released over the years, now there’s a great big 1/48 version. I haven’t seen one, and can’t afford one, but it looks spiffy. Someone should buy a couple dozen through this Amazon link and send me one so I can confirm whether or not it’s spiffy.
The first trailer for “Rogue One” was released today:
It’s out in December, and has already been picked apart frame by frame:
There are two bits I found of particular interest.
2: Old-School Star Destroyers. Even better, the one shown most clearly is dressed up like the Star Destroyer seen in the original “Star Wars,” rather than the slightly modified versions from “Empire” and “Jedi” (the antenna or whatever above the bridge stands up in “Star Wars,” is laid down in “Empire” and “Jedi”).
In short:
The one issue I have: in the scene showing the Death Star laser dish thingie being put into place… it’s moving in at a closing speed of *kilometers* per second. That’s gonna make touchdown kinda rough.
The “River of Souls” TV movie, to be more precise.
What the heck, Japan. This is Just Plain Weird. If you want to know just how weird in just one deeply distressing/hilarious GIF, lookit THIS.
Possibility exists that this is an April fools gag (the claim that the suit, which appears to be just spandex, has the ability to send fairly precise sensory impulses certainly would seem to back that up). But if it is… it’s difficult to distinguish, due to this falling squarely in line with the level of weird we’ve come to expect from Japan.
Does the headline seem like it might be a bit hyperbolic? Consider:
In short… if you are planning on selling or renting, it is now up to you to prove your case that the criminal who wants the place shouldn’t be allowed in. A history of rape, murder of talking in theaters is no longer prima facia evidence that the prospective renter is someone you should not do business with.
What’s the reason for this? Because certain ethnic groups are over-represented in prison, they are over-represented in the “ex-offender” community, and are thus over-represented in the “hell no, I don’t want a rapist living in my building” community. And thus, the geniuses at the HUD have determined that refusal to rent to criminals is racist.
If this seems good and logical to you… well, there’s no accounting for crazy, I suppose.
As for the term “Ex Offender:” while I will grant that in many cases, a criminal conviction need not necessarily imply that the person is and always will be a criminal thuggish threat at heart… at what point is a “murderer” no longer a “murderer?” When is a “rapist” no longer a “rapist?”
Promptly upon finishing the sci-fi story “Mass Disappearance,” I began work on followups starring the same characters. One such story fell by the wayside, but another continued on. “Going to Gimli” – which I acknowledge is a lame title – is the one that survived. Given that I released “Mass Disappearance” almost two years ago, it should be reasonably obvious that I’m not up to Steven King’s class when it comes to banging out prose in a hurry.
I’m going to release “Gimli” in bite-sized chunks in PDF and EPUB format. While I have no doubt that a good editor would take a chainsaw to this, perhaps cutting half of it out… well, since there’s essentially zero chance of it ever getting published, I’m happy just putting it out there as-is. I write these particular yarns because I want to. There are scenes, images, visions, whatever, that I see from time to time and, lacking the ability to paint or otherwise create visual works of art, enscribblating the visuals down in prose form is the best I can do.
“Gimli” features the same Sarah, Zane, Loff and George characters from “Mass Disappearance,” again flying between worlds in their hyperdrive cargo ship. The plot is otherwise quite unlike that of “Mass Disappearance.” There is no charge for these. But if you read them and like them, feel free to tell your friends… and putting a little something in the tip jar would not be unappreciated.
Any comments, critiques, criticisms, suggestions or praise are welcome in the comments section.
Neato:
In short: satellite imagery of the Point Rosee peninsula on Newfoundland indicated a possible archeological site; and when archeologists got there they found what appears to be a millenium-old Norse iron-working hearth, complete with slag.
In the 1960’s, a Viking settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows on Newfoundland was confirmed. But that was on the northeast of the sizable island; this new site is on the southwest. This indicates a more substantial colonization/exploration effort than was previously accepted.
The Norse sagas describe several of these efforts, and point out that the local “skraelings” drove them out via violence. Given the current political climate of hating on anyone who wants to deport illegal aliens, I think a case can be made that what happened a thousand years ago was a genocide against the Norse; I think those of us with Scandinavian heritage have a case for demanding reparations. I’m thinking a 50% share of the gross take from Indian casinos would be fair.
Amidoinitrite?
Which will jump off this ship?
Not just *a* patent. But *the* patent. As in the actual patent application, with all the supporting documentation, testimonials, photographs, etc. This went missing from the National Archives around 1980; turns out it was just mis-filed, and it has been found after years of searching.
