Automan

 blather, history, science fiction, youtube  5 Responses »
Jul 202014
 

“Automan” was a short-lived, fairly horrible TV series from 1983/84 that tried to profit from the popularity of Tron. While today it looks pretty awful on every level, at the time it seemed – at least to this 13-year-old – pretty awesome. The special effects were very primitive by todays standards, but even so they drove the cost of the show to around a million dollars an episode… substantial money at the time. And while the results are, well, cheesy, this was the first time that the notion of computer graphics playing an important role in TV was really tried.

Being a child of the 80’s, I suppose I should have all kinds of nostalgia for the 80’s. And I do. But one thing I *don’t* have a whole lot of 80’s nostalgia for is the cheeseball writing, dialogue and acting you see in a lot of these shows. Ugh.

[youtube ezIQnAVVJYc]

 Posted by at 7:08 pm

Patreon update

 aircraft, APR, drawings, news, Patreon, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Jul 202014
 

I’m about $21 short of the next milestone, which will result in two “PDF reviews” per month of little-known online aerospace history resources. So if that idea appeals… consider signing up (and telling all your friends who have a few dimes to rub together).

Also: in August there will be three documents/large format diagrams released, along with three CAD diagrams. The documents/LFD’s are yet to be chosen (the $10 patron will get to vote on this in the next week or so), but the CAD diagrams are underway. One is already basically complete: the first accurate and clean, large 3-view diagram of the Northrop Tacit Blue demonstrator. The second will be of a proposed launch vehicle. The third is still up in the air.

 
patreon

 Posted by at 12:02 pm

Foil

 blather, humor, politics, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  8 Responses »
Jul 202014
 

Another new Weird Al music music video. This is “Foil,” a parody of “Royals” by Lorde. I found it to be fairly “meh…” for the first 1:16 or so. And then it goes kinda hilarious.

[youtube w-0TEJMJOhk]

TANGENTIAL RANT: I can’t stand “Royals.” Not because the tune or execution suck, but because the *message* sucks. At its heart it’s a lament that “boo hoo I’ll never be a princess.” Well… not only “well, duh, grow up,” but also “royalty sucks.” *Any* caste system – of which aristocracy is obviously an important player – is  about as anti-human an idea as I can imagine. I have no problem with people passing their wealth down to their offspring. But passing political power or position to their offspring? Really? Really?? No.

Wanting to be a Duke or a Baron or a Queen or a princess means that you want to have the right to force lesser people to live according to your whims. You want the right to have the taxpayers fund your lifestyle.

[youtube TIMrFpnfvyI]

THIS VIDEO pretty much encapsulates it for me (slightly NSFW language, so turn it up, man!).

 Posted by at 9:07 am

Magical Thinking

 Hmm..., news, religion, science, wisdom  1 Response »
Jul 202014
 

Read a story with fantastical/magical/miraculous elements to a group of children. Some children will recognize that the characters and situation are fictional. Some will assume that they are real. Could there be something to their upbringing that causes this distinction?

Hmmmm…

 Posted by at 7:27 am

Making the multiverse testable

 Hmm..., news, science, science fiction, youtube  3 Responses »
Jul 192014
 

One of the more interesting cosmological notions of recent decades is the multiverse… the notion that there are parallel or alternate realities out there *somewhere.* Every bit as real as our reality, but severed from it and unreachable. The concept works with some aspect of quantum mechanics and such, but in order to be a truly scientific concept, as opposed to philosophical armwaving, it needs to be testable. But how do you test for other universes, when you don’t have stargates or transporters into mirror universes?

Is the universe a bubble? Let’s check: Making the multiverse hypothesis testable

One proposed approach: simulate the entire universe. Then simulate another one. And whack ’em together and see what the simulations say you should see… then look for those traces in the universe at large. One suggested sign of a collision between universes would leave circular features on the cosmic background radiation. Such signs have not yet been found.

Of course, this would require that other universes are in “bubbles” that could interact with ours. When dealing with something like this, though, it seems to me that there could well be alternate realities that are fundamentally different from that, existing well apart across other dimensions currently unimagined.

[youtube w0uyR6JPkz4]

 Posted by at 6:08 pm
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