Picard Season 3 review: Not Positive

 AARRRGH, blather, Hmm..., politics, science fiction, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Feb 112023
 

I haven’t seen it, so don’t blame me. But this reviewer *really* didn’t like it:

Don’t watch ‘Star Trek: Picard’ season three, it’ll only encourage them

The third season is yet another misguided waste of everyone’s time.

Whoa.

The previews look better than the first two execrable seasons, but that’s a low bar indeed.

I am reminded of a reaction video I recently saw. Even in my advancing decrepitude that’s not that big of a mental achievement, considering I saw this video yesterday:

The young lady in question watched “Galaxy Quest” without the benefit of being a fan of Star Trek. Without, in fact, the benefit of actually knowing much about Star Trek. And yet, with minimal exposure to TOS or TNG… she got “Galaxy Quest.” Maybe a few of the jokes skipped past her, but the main themes? Fully understood, accepted and appreciated. A point she raised that caught my attention: near the end when the nerd-kid is contacted and learns that his favorite show is actually real, the young lady stated that she thought that this must have been the dream of many Star Trek fans. Little does she know: whole generations of Trekkies and Trekkers  lived in the desperate hope of living in the world of Star Trek. For some this meant daydreaming about serving aboard the Enterprise. For some it meant doing what needed to to become authors or actors or film/TV show makers in the hopes of bringing their own dreams of trek to life (looking at you, Seth MacFarlane). For some of us it meant going into science and engineering in the hopes of starting mankind on the road to trekking the stars. And her realization got me thinking.

Over the last twenty-some years some “Galaxy Quest,” it has been almost universally hailed as one of the best Star Trek Movies. It is certainly one of the movies that shows most clearly a love and understanding of the original Star Trek. Within the movie, an alien race has picked up TV transmissions of the sci-fi series “Galaxy Quest,” and they decided to rebuild their entire society to conform to the vision of “Galaxy Quest,” and in doing so the saved themselves from oblivion and gave themselves hope and a new reason to go on. So… my thinking is this: the “Galaxy Quest Test.”

The test is simple: take a series or a movie that claims to be Star Trek, and imagine that it gets beamed out into space. It is picked up by an earnest alien race capable of understanding it. They have much the same ethics, hopes and fears as humanity, even if they don’t look anything like us and are really rather innocent, despite the fact they are being ground out of existence. What are the chances that these aliens will watch the show or movie and decide that the vision they’ve watched and understood is such a wonderful thing that they will choose to emulate it?

I can see this with TOS. I can see it with TNG. I can see it with Lower Decks and certainly Prodigy. I can see it with Voyager. I can kinda see it with Deep Space Nine. But the Kelvin movies? *Any* season of Discovery or Picard? Not a chance in hell.

So, when watching Star Trek Picard season three, keep this question int he back of your mind: “What would Mathesar think of this?”

 

 

 

 Posted by at 5:59 am

Laws and ethics lag reality

 blather, Crazy, Gah., Hmm..., science, science fiction, Worldwreckers, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Feb 032023
 

The video below is a bit yammery, but some important and interesting points are raised, discussed and… dunno. Apparently there’s drama going on among a number of twitch streamers; I’m a bit proud to say I don’t know who the hell these people are, but the crux of the matter is that someone set up a website that shows deepfakes of a number of these “e-girls” in X-rated situations. Some of these women kinda do that now; some of them don’t. What’s the law on this sort of thing? What’s the ethics? Is it wrong to look at such things? Part of the drama is that some e-guy was found to have, ah, utilized the website… and he and his wife are personal friends with some of these women. Awkward. Is he in legal trouble? Seems unlikely. Is he in trouble with the friends? With his wife? Seems pretty likely.

We are in early days of this sort of thing. With the rise of AI art generators and constantly improving deepfake-tech, this sort of thing will only get more prominent, and society is not even really trying to play catch-up yet. As always, people ignore science fiction at their peril.

Soon enough, it will be possible to spool up Naughty Imagery/Videos of *everyone*, made to order. Like do-it-yourself genetic tinkering, this sort of tech is inevitable and unstoppable, and lots of people will want to do it. How will society handle dirty imagery, fake vs real being indistinguishable, being readily available of *everyone?* Seems to me that, eventually as people grow up with it, people just won’t care anymore. You could walk past a giant billboard showing *you* going at it with a tapir and you’ll hardly notice. What effects will that have on society and on people? On one hand, it’ll be damned hard to blackmail people. The job of private investigators will become first really easy, and then really hard, as their photos and videos become unusable as evidence, much less proof. But a larger effect might be an acceleration of the baby bust. As such things become virtually universal, interest in going at it with the opposite sex might very well fall to prit near zero. And thus baby-making might become rather a niche interest, and the populations of developed nations will slip into the dark to be replaced with large numbers of imports.

That would doubtless be to *someones* liking.

 

 Posted by at 7:28 am

Could Illinois become a Second Amendment Sanctuary State?

 awesomeness, blather, Hmm..., news, politics, weapons  No Responses »
Jan 312023
 

The Dem-dominated government of the state of Illinois passed an “assault weapon ban” that bans not only commonly owned firearms but also standard capacity magazines as part of their policy of decriminalizing violent crime while criminalizing the law abiding. But the law was so badly written – and badly conceived – that I wonder if the inevitable boomerang effect might end up with Illinois finally entering the twenty first century and ditching *all* of the unconstitutional tyrannical nonsense that has been on the books. Consider:

Appellate Court Affirms DeVore’s Equal Protection Argument, Assault Weapons Ban Temporary Restraining Order, Binds Courts Statewide

The ban on common rifles is clearly unconstitutional on second amendment right… but it’s *also* unconstitutional – state and federal – on “equal protection” issues. Because while it bans *some* people from owning, say, an AR-15, it exempts current and retired police, current military and security guards. The point is often raised that the same politicians who rail against average schmoes being able to defend their homes, persons and property with a semi-auto rifle often have armed guards packing semi and even full auto weapons.

One can hope that the court smackdown of the “assault weapon ban” will hit so hard that other existing gun laws in Illinois will be brought down. By over-reaching, the gun-grabbers might well have assured that all gun control laws across the US end up before the US Supreme Court. It would be spectacular if the NFA winds up going the way of the dodo, as it should. There are few enough arguments that support banning fully automatic weapons; there are none for bans on suppressors and short barreled rifles and shotguns.

 Posted by at 11:33 pm

Another Cyanotype update

 aircraft, art, awesomeness, blather, cyanotype blueprints, drawings, history, news  No Responses »
Jan 282023
 

The hardware has been modified to “print” up to the full six feet in length (actually a little more, maybe 6’8″). I continue to crank out test prints, with about a 50/40/10 mix of “awesome”/”disappointing”/”dismal.” Now it seems the production part of the project is largely dialed in; it seems that *chemistry* is responsible for much of the trouble. There is a window in which the fluid can be properly used:

  1. When the two chemicals are first mixed, they produce a liquid that is mud-brown. When used right off, it doesn’t seem to stick to the paper very well, or doesn’t react adequately. In any event, the result is massively faded. Wholly unusable. It seems to take about 24 hours from mixing to reliable usability. After 24 hours, the fluid has turned from brown to dark-ish green. Seems to work great at about that point. After another day, it turns a *dark* green, then trends towards blue. As it goes, it becomes increasingly useless. So there is a 24-48 hour window, it seems. I can work with that, now that I got it more or less figgered.

 

While the hardware is set up for in excess of 6 feet, so far the biggest print I’ve done is 56 inches, a *spectacular* pair of isometric interior structure views of the B-2A. yeah, I’m a bit surprised that the original was declassified, but it was, so there it is (and it was sent to me by a Russian feller, so it’s out there). I’ve done 2 so far… one is as close to perfect as I can hope for; one is *slightly* flawed via faded bits.

 

When I left Utah, my cyanotyping hardware got trashed. But I had the foresight to roll up all the transparencies I had. And wow, I have a lot of them. And WOW are they dirty. Utah is great and all, but it *is* the desert and full of dust… it’s coarse, rough, irritating, and it gets everywhere. All of the transparencies will have to be washed and windexed. And I’ve washed, but not yet windexed, the first of the six-footers I plan on printing: a CAD diagram of my own, the SLS in 1/72 scale. A good businessman would have had this ready for the Artemis mission a little while ago but… shrug.

 

These test prints will probably go up on ebay to get some sense of the interest in them. I suspect an Etsy store would be the best next step. There are a *lot* of crappy digitally printed aerospace “blueprints” there… one of the very first ones to pop up is a digitally printed 12″x72″ Saturn V that almost certainly was derived from Space Drawing 4.  I previously sold actual cyanotypes of this at the exact same size… for $50 compared to the digital print at $75. I feel rather like a chump. There are actual cyanotype prints available as well, but the one’s I’ve seen all look rather bland and low-effort. Bah.

 Posted by at 1:09 pm

My tenuous, tangential link to the “adult daycare centers”

 aircraft, art, blather, Crazy, Forward!, history, Hmm..., Meh., politics, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jan 262023
 

Because in present Day, everything has to be All About Me…

 

Several years before I left Utah I was contacted by an aerospace historian/ museum feller about a potential project. It seemed that a big tech company was purchasing an old Hughes Aircraft hangar with the intention of turning it into office space; I was asked if I might be interested in building a large (IIRC, wingspan in excess of twenty feet) replica of the Hughes H4 Hercules “Spruce Goose” to be hung in the  large open space.  My response was something along the lines of “hell yes,” but it didn’t go much further than that original discussion; like a lot of things it just faded away. Still, I’d dug out what plans I had of the Hercules and started dreaming up how I was going to do it… I’d model it in 3D CAD, lay out the internal structure and have ribs and longerons and frames and all cut out of quality plywood, clad probably in *really* good, really thin plywood, sanded baby-ass smooth and painted appropriately. I had discussions with a local wood shop about getting the many, many parts CNC milled. Woulda been a thing of beauty… and something I could have built several of and presumably made bank on. But it was not to be, and in the years since I’ve not given the project a second thought. Until yesterday…

 

So there was this TikTok video by some vapid person yapping about her day of meaningless food consumption and unproductivity at the Google LA office, built into a former Hughes hangar. Lo and behold, on display is a “sculpture” of the Hercules hanging from the ceiling, visible about 8 seconds in:

My old brain fired up and I contacted my acquaintance who had originally presented me with the idea years ago… and, yup, that’s the place, and that sculpture is what they went with rather than my planned subscale replica. More info and a decent photo of it is here:

HistoricHangarBecomesHistory-MakingWorkplace

There are a number of things that jump right out at me. First, the volume of space available in the hangar is vast… and it *seems* like the volume of space actually used for offices and such is *small.* It appears to be horribly inefficiently utilized. And second, here’s the description of the Hercules sculpture:

Comprised of 2,800 individually hung chrome spheres, this perceptual sculpture by Michael Murphy appears to be an amorphous silver cloud until seen from the sole viewpoint where it reveals itself as the “ghost” of the Spruce Goose.

 

It’s a “perceptual sculpture,” only visible correctly from a single vantage point. Basically, it’s not “real” as such, it’s kinda like a hologram made of ball bearings. That’s… interesting, I guess. but I can’t help draw some analogies: What I had suggested was a real, tangible Hercules, visible as such from all aspects and viewpoints. What they went with was smoke and mirrors. What I had believed the place was going to be was a workplace where people got stuff done. What it ended up being was, apparently a holding facility for people who did nothing of value all day.

 

Would have been a nice project though. Oh well.

 Posted by at 8:42 pm

The “In Between” years of Star Trek

 art, blather, history, science fiction, youtube  No Responses »
Jan 222023
 

A YouTube video discussing the time between the cancellation of Star Trek and The Motion Picture. It would be an era unimaginable to fans of a just-cancelled franchise today: back then, you either saw the showed when it aired, or you didn’t. Until it hit syndication, there was for all intents and purposes no way for someone to see the show. All you had were your memories, the verbal descriptions from others, the occasional magazine article, and a series of novelizations of the episodes. There was no renting an episode on tape at Blockbuster, no buying the DVD, no streaming it online. A few might have access to crappy films.

 

And yet… when the first Star Trek Convention was held in 1972, the place was swamped, and attendance only grew from there. It was an analog IRL experience unlike anything possible today. On the one hand it was lean, dark times, with limited resources and opportunities; on the other hand, it led to fandoms and communities of a kind impossible today. There is value in rarity, I suppose. People value that which they have to work for.

 

A post from a few years ago with a Star trek Convention film shot in 1976.

 Posted by at 5:58 am

That’s a weird way to “deNazify” Ukraine…

 AARRRGH, blather, Crazy, Gah., Hmm..., news, nukes, politics, russian empire, weapons, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jan 192023
 

I recently had a disturbing online conversation with a Russian aeronautical expert on the subject of Ukraine. One can reasonably expect a Russian will have a different point of view on the subject than a westerner would… but this was an *experience.* In short: It’s good and proper that Russia exterminate the Ukrainian people, because their culture, history and identity don’t exist; they’re a fiction, it’s all part of Russia and Russias destiny to retake that plot of land. “The history of Ukraine began with the betrayal in Belovezhskaya Pushcha in 1991 and will end in 2023.” Any who stand against the Russians goals deserve death and the nuking of western/NATO cities would be a small price to pay for Russia reclaiming it’s former empire.

 

Yeesh.

 

And of course one of the main excuses for why the “special military operation” is a wonderful thing? The need to get rid of all the Nazis in Ukraine. Ukraine, under the leadership of a democratically elected feller who I understand to be a Jew, is somehow being controlled by Nazis. Uh-huh. After years of weirdo whackaloons here in the west constantly banging on about fascists and Nazis – by which they mean anyone with politics to the right of FDR – I have no sympathy for Russians bleating on about Nazis. Especially when *this* is who the Russians are sending into battle against the Ukrainian people:

 

 

 

 

It’s bad enough that Russian leadership is clearly bugnuts, but that this has seeped out into the general populace is unnerving. I was told that Putin is felt to be too soft on the west, and: “If Kadyrov becomes president, the whole world will remember the beautiful and humane Vladimir Vladimirovich with tears.”

 

There have been more and more reports that NATO countries are running out of weapons and ammo. Again, this is both good and bad news. The bad is obvious. But the good is that the West is figuring this out *now* while our economies are still running and our factories are still standing. If the relatively tiny amount of ordnance the west is sending to Ukraine is drying up western armories… that’s a damned good sign that we need to start stocking up in a serious way.

 Posted by at 11:00 pm

FASA miniatures: an odd request

 AARRRGH, art, blather, history, Hmm..., science fiction, spacecraft  No Responses »
Jan 152023
 

Back in the mid 80’s, one of the things I got a kick out of was the FASA Star Trek starship combat game. Not just the game itself, but all the books and miniatures that went along with it. I bought, assembled and painted a number of the little metal ships, and have tried to keep them through all the decades since… but through numerous moves and general attrition and entropy, a bunch of the ships have vanished. Recently I’ve had an itch to take the ones I’ve got, strip their decades old paint and try again, and to replace the ones I’ve lost. I’ve looked for replacements on ebay with limited success. Most of what’s available are still in their packages, which means the prices are nuts, and the ones I really want to replace haven’t popped up.

 

So… does anyone have a collection of these things – or even just one – that you want to unload for a reasonable sum? If so, let me know.

 

 

Also: am I alone in having an attachment to these lead/pewter miniatures that simply doesn’t exist for plastic ones, including modern 3D printed versions? There just seems to be something special about them. Perhaps it’s the weight… and perhaps it’s the fact that these were what I had when my brain was developing connections that have ossified since I became an adult. I’d accept either or both explanations, but the fact remains: metal > plastic.

 

 Posted by at 1:46 pm

You and what army?

 awesomeness, blather, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., Hmm..., news, politics, weapons, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jan 142023
 

Attorney General says if sheriffs won’t enforce gun ban ‘there are other people there to do the job’

The attorney general of the state of Illinois is annoyed that the great majority of the county sheriffs – elected officials who do not report to the Governor, nor can he remove them from office – have told the Governor to get bent over the issue of arresting several million citizens for the crime of owning semi-automatic rifles and standard capacity magazines. The AG believes that other police forces than county sheriffs can do the job, such as the State Police. Perhaps he thinks the Governor can call up the National Guard for this task. But for those sheriffs who take their jobs seriously, they may well arrest State Police who attempt to arrest citizens. And the sheriffs would be right to do so: their oaths tend to include words to the effect of “protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” and banning magazines and firearms is, especially in light of recent Supreme Court decisions, monumentally and obviously unconstitutional.

 

This would not be unprecedented. Recall the ATF agent who got himself arrested a couple years ago. This was an arrest and tazing that didn’t need to happen; it followed the same script as so many other arrests: someone high on drugs or entitlement refuses to comply even a little bit with simple orders of the police, and things go badly for them. in this case, the ATF agent was high on his sense of overwhelming power… which it turned out he didn’t actually have.

 

I imagine if State Police or some such start actually arresting the law abiding, various resistance movements will start up that will keep them under surveillance and sic Sheriffs and vigilance committees on them. Real-time monitoring of anyone suspected of trying to enforce the unconstitutional law would seem entirely feasible in this day and age.

 

Also: virtually all police enjoy “qualified immunity,” which protects them from getting sued when they behave badly. But as I understand it, that immunity goes away if they are doing something unconstitutional. So, ummm… if you are a State Police officer who really doesn’t want to lose his house, his saving and his kids college fund, maybe think twice before violating someones Constitutional rights. Just a thought.

 Posted by at 10:29 am
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