I applaud the manufacturers for figuring out a cheap way to get large sums of money out of ridiculous people. I despair at a society that has produced enough idiots to make this a market.
I can sell you grottier-looking *actually* distressed sneakers for less than half the price. But maybe I’d do better if I tried to sell them at *twice* the price?
This short, low-budget film is surprisingly entertaining. A disposable astronaut, a second-rate wizard, an insane robot and a Dark Lord on a post-apocalyptic Earth.
Artwork of the Boeing Integrated Manned Interplanetary Spacecraft, circa 1968. This is the best known of the numerous manned Mars spacecraft designed over the last half century, and is often directly associated with Werner von Braun as he would go on to try to get congress and NASA to forge ahead with the program. Obviously he was not successful. Aspects of this spacecraft design were illustrated in great detail in US Spacecraft Projects #03 and USSP #04
I’ve seen this piece of art many times over the years, always in pretty poor resolution; I finally found a good-rez version on eBay a while back. I’ve made the full-rez scan available to above-$10-subscribers to the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program/Patreon. Clearly the original painting must have been done in color, but I do not think I’ve ever seen this image reproduced in color. I suspect that about ten seconds after I keel over someone will put on eBay a 24X26 full-color pristine lithograph with a buy-it-now price of five bucks. So keep an eye out for that: you see it, I’m like as not deadern’ disco.
If this sort of thing is of interest, consider subscribing. Even a buck a month will help out; but the more you subscribe for, the more you get… and the more you help me get from eBay and save for the ages.
The nerdverse has been lightly abuzz the last few days thanks to this video showing the results of using Google’s machine learning system to bump up Deep Space Nine footage from 480p to 1080p. Honestly… I can’t really see much of an improvement, but a lot of people say they can. Shrug.
Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Babylon 5 will probably never see true Blu Ray releases, because they weren’t filmed with that resolution in mind. So a high-rez version will probably have to rely on computer magic. And while I just can’t see it here… give it a few years and doubtless we’ll be able to watch bootleg DS9 in 12K resolution
What I’m *really* hoping for, though, is an innovation in quantum computing. With luck we’ll be able to fire up Netflix, select a preferred alternate reality, and watch all sixteen seasons of DS9 shot at 4K resolution.
A model I mastered for Fantastic Plastic is available for purchase: the Soviet Bartini A-57. This was a design for a supersonic seaplane strategic bomber, carrying a “parasite” recon plane on its back. The model itself is quite sizable, and it builds and paints up into a pretty impressive piece.
She is both entertaining and, refreshingly, not politically insane. Basic setup, she stands or sits there and rants about politics and pop culture.
https://www.youtube.com/mindlessentertainment
On the subject of the hypocrisy and outright insanity of “cultural appropriation:”
And on the subject of “strong female characters:”
The usual crop of “strong female characters” are discussed, both Real “strong women like Ellen Ripley and Princess Leia, and the forced NPC-like Rey and Captain Marvel.
There are some oddities when this subject is discussed, there have been some truly badass “strong female characters” who just keep being forgotten in these discussions.
Like Kira Nerys, who was central to making DS9 the great show that it was…
And I mean, come on. Dude. B5. Dude.
Not to forget Aeryn Sun:
And the entirely unrelated Vala Mal Doran:
And Samantha Carter:
A tactical magazine-fed repeating crossbow. Let Joerg show you its features:
An idle thought occurred while Netflix was on for background noise while I poked away at the computer.
Can we shoehorn the James Bond and 2001 universes together? Obviously we can’t assume that every Bond movie is canonical with “2001,” since the Bond flicks recognize that the USSR fell. But *one* movie… maybe. Consider the linking figure: actor William Sylvester.
Sylvester played Dr. Heywood Floyd, head of the National Council of Astronautics, in 1968’s “2001.” He also played “Pentagon Official” in 1967’s “You Only Live Twice.” Obviously these are not the same character, as the timeframes of the movies are separated by ~34 years, while the *actor* was essentially the same age (~45) in both movies. But here’s the what-if: what if that Pentagon Official was Heywood Floyds father? It’s *really* not that unusual for people deeply involved in the government bureaucracy and politics to have kids who follow in their footsteps. Dr. Floyd would have been born when his father was about 34, a perfectly cromulent age for that sort of thing.
It’s a minor point, of course, to have the same actor. But the events of “You Only Live Twice,” where a well-funded terrorist organization is paid by the Chinese to run a space launch facility and program to steal Soviet and American space capsules, might be just the sort of thing to set changes in the timeline in motion. A private organization operating Chinese equipment (it’s unclear whether the entire rocket and spacecraft were Chinese products through and through, or if SPECTRE designed them themselves using Chinese hardware, or what) and proving rapid turnaround for a partially reusable space launch system in 1967 would have been just the thing to get the USA and USSR off their butts. NASA was well on it’s way to the moon, but the “Bird One” spacecraft would have set them on the course to developing low-cost reusable craft *fast.* Because not only would it be obvious that major powers have such craft… so do criminal organizations.
“Pentagon Official” saw World War III nearly break out over a small reusable spacecraft of remarkable capability. Doubtless he would have shared that with his then-11-year-old son. That could well have set Lil’ Heywood on his way, just as the events set the US and the USSR on their way to lunar bases and space stations.
I suppose there might be a longer fan-fiction story in there.
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By the way: a few years ago I mastered kits for Fantastic plastic that fit directly into this hypothesis. Click the pics for the links to ordering them.
Like a lead balloon made of chemtrails, CIA AIDS, wage gaps and other conspiracies:
Two murders, three suicides and one overdose. On its face the stats seems surprising, but given the location and the personalities… shrug. They protested the police and now, oddly, feel like the police aren’t prioritizing them and their problems, and as a result apparently there’s some despair because a lack of policing in some places leads to very bad things.
You can be arrested for having a piece of video that is being widely distributed. It would be like the US banning the possession of video of the 9-11 attacks. Additionally, the New Zealand government is censoring speech well beyond a simple video… unless you use a VPN to get around it.
You want extremism? This is how you get extremism. Because banning stuff only makes it more popular.