Jan 192023
 

This new Apple+ show looks like it *could* have truckloads of potential… and I can see where it could torpedo itself. Behold “Hello Tomorrow!” Some sort of alternate history where the 1950’s never ended yet technology continued, so there are hover-cars, robots and spaceships that all look like they belong in the 50’s. This *could* be friggen’ spectacular: a bright, uplifting story of possibilities. But there are unsubtle hints that “things are not what they seem,” that could turn the whole thing into garbage. “Ascension,” anyone?” The space colonies don’t work, or there are dark conspiracies, or bog-standard “racism and misogyny and transphobia, oh my,” or it’s all some sort of simulation.

Remember the days when you saw a great-looking trailer and you actually held out optimism? But as I don;t have Apple+, I guess it doesn’t much matter…

 

 Posted by at 11:27 am
Jan 172023
 

After multiple rounds of iterating improved tools and techniques, I seem to have finally nailed the large format system (at least up to 24X36, haven’t gone bigger yet… 24X72 is coming). I plan on mailing off the first clients prints in a few days. He has suggested that I sell further copies of these prints to whoever wants them; I will discuss this a bit more, and if all are amenable, I’ll make them available. Until then I don’t want to divulge much other than to say it’s a copy of a prop-blueprint with modifications, not an aerospace blueprint.

 

The new system relies on UV lamps rather than sunlight. This took some time to get right; 4 lamps turned into 8. But the exposure time has dropped from something like 5 to 7 minutes of Utah summer daylight to 1 minute fifty seconds of consistent ultraviolet bombardment, day or night, sun or cloud.

 Posted by at 10:47 am
Jan 162023
 

I haven’t been a Scooby Doo fan since the seventies, never watched of the many series that have been created since, with the lone exception being the initially remarkably awesome “Scooby Apocalypse” comic books. So the announcement of the “Velma” series bounced right off me. I was unsurprised to hear that it was Current Day Progressive Woke Trash; and there’s enough of that now that even hate watching this thing didn’t seem like a good use of my time or even passably entertaining.

But it seems that it is *so* bad that even the NPCs it’s aimed directly at are having a hard time accepting it. Seems there are some bugs in the code.

‘Velma’ Is So Bad It’s Spawned Psyop Conspiracy Theories

Velma is so bad in fact, that it’s spawning conspiracy theories that creator Mindy Kaling made what is essentially a parody of what the right wing thinks left wing comedy is like. As in, a show that not just recast most roles with new races, but also features loads and loads of “white guys, amiright?” jokes. The idea is that Kaling is a secretly conservative force in media trying to make the left look bad by making a cringey adult cartoon full of “this rich white guy has a small dong” jokes that the right can point at as everything wrong with race-recasted, social justice-influenced media.

Yes, yes… late the hate flow through you, commies weirdos!

 

 Posted by at 11:43 pm
Jan 162023
 

I’m not sure how practical this is; the actual tabletop seems like it might not be extravagantly study, being held together with many, many glue joints. But as *art* it’s pretty durned nifty.

 

 Posted by at 1:39 pm
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
Jan 152023
 

Along with the various iterations of single-seat tiltrotors (especially a stealthy version shown HERE), Bell also proposed a more conventional helicopter for the Light Helicopter eXperimental program in the early 80’s. The artwork below was published in 1985 and depicts a single seat scout chopper with stealthy features. I have no data on this design; scale can be estimated based on the size of the human figures. It would doubtless have been a chore for a single pilot to handle; probably less problematic than a single-seat tiltrotor.

 Posted by at 1:39 pm
Jan 152023
 

Ummm….

 

 

It looks like a lot of things. Like MLK, though, is not one of them. Disembodied limbs doing naughty things, sure. What Starfleet got back from that transporter foulup at the beginning of ST:TMP, sure. But an actual recognizable human? Not so much.

 

Perhaps it was made specifically to get torn down. In recent years it has become standard practice to tear down statues of historical figures who have the slightest hint of unfortunate or problematic aspects… and, well

 Posted by at 10:19 am