Don’t you *dare* screw this up, Syfy…

 art, awesomeness, history, science fiction, youtube  12 Responses »
Apr 202015
 

First trailer for Syfy’s “Childhood’s End:”

I read this, the first of Arthur C. Clarke’s novels, when I was a kid more than thirty years ago, and again a month or so back. For those who have not read the book… DO NOT go digging for spoilers. Either wait for December, when the hopefully faithful miniseries comes out, or read the book. Sure, the spoilers would be *sixty* years old (62, in fact), but come on, it’s a quick read and worth it.

It’s not the usual alien invasion tale. A lot of people will, I think, believe that Childhood’s End rips off scenes from “V” and/or “Independence Day,” but it’s really the other way around… and the similarity will pretty much end with “giant hovering spacecraft over our cities filled with mysterious aliens.”

So, Syfy… don’t screw it up. Don’t mess with the timeline of the story; don’t mess with the appearance of the aliens; and don’t mess with the final outcome. Bonus points for including the bullfight.

 Posted by at 4:27 pm

Rogue One

 art, news, science fiction  9 Responses »
Apr 192015
 

The first thing Disney did when they bought the Star Wars franchise was to decide to release one movie per year. The way it seems they’re going to do that is to start with the “major Episode” movie “The Force Awakens” in December of this year, kickstarting a new overarching story with a consistent cast of characters, and then release a spinoff movie next December. The process seems to be to alternate between “Episodes” and one-off “anthology” movies.

I’m ok with that.

Disney has released information about the first spinoff, “Star Wars: Rogue One,” to be released December 2016. This will be a prequel of sorts… it’s about the rebels stealing the plans for the first Death Star (the plans featured in the original Star Wars, which Princess Leia loaded into R2-D2 at the beginning of the movie). Good news: NO JEDI. Seriously. Screw those guys.

From a certain point of view, we know how the movie ends: the plans get stolen and delivered to Leia. On the other hand… it could well be that every single rebel spy dies in the process. Additionally… you can bet Vader will show up.

The teaser that was shown (but doesn’t seem to have been officially released yet, so this is cameraphone footage… and it may get a takedown soon enough) doesn’t reveal much, but it does have a nifty shot.

 Posted by at 8:22 pm

Well, this is just awful

 AARRRGH, blather, Crazy, Gah., religion, ಠ_ಠ  8 Responses »
Apr 192015
 

Wow.  Some people just really, really suck at the “parenting” thing.

When Catholic Homeschooled Kids Get Lonely

The author is the parent of a pair of homeschooled children. Why are the children lonely? Because the parents are driving home the message that the child’s sole purpose in life is to, in essence, be Jesus’ slave, and that any other interest – music, TV, friendship – is not only secondary, it takes time and energy away from the attention that the child is supposed to be devoting to Christ.

The worst of it is the “letter from Jesus” that one or other of the parents left for the daughters to find. This supposed missive from the almighty is a whiny complaint that the child is a disappointment.

Ye gods.

Maybe if you stop and think about this, this will give you an idea as to how I feel watching you give to others all that you were created to give to Me. You were created by my Father for Me. He brought you into this world for one reason, and one reason only: to be My friend.

And yet, Me you have ignored while longing for human friendships instead. You were brought into this world by My Father to love Me. And yet, you have given that love to your toys, your DVDs, your music, the pleasures of this world, and most of all to yourself. But to Me, you have given no love. You were brought into this world by My Father for Me, not for yourself or for man. Why, then, do you cry for man, long for man, and search for man night and day?

Yikes. I gather that “guilt” is a big feature of the Catholic culture, but dayum. This seems like a prescription for a horror show.

 Posted by at 7:53 pm

This looks like a challenge…

 Hmm..., I'm from the government, news, politics, spacecraft  18 Responses »
Apr 182015
 

NASA Says Nobody’s Getting to Mars Without Its Help

… NASA administrator Charles Bolden went so far as to say that “No commercial company without the support of NASA and government is going to get to Mars.”

This can be taken two ways:

1) “NASA is just plain essential and nobody else has the smarts to do it.”

2) “Just you try, and we’ll drop on you like a ton of Federal bricks.”

Let’s *hope* that the true meaning is the arrogance inherent in #1. #2 would indicate serious trouble.

 Posted by at 4:14 pm

Bell LHX art

 art, history, Patreon, projects  1 Response »
Apr 182015
 

A piece of Bell Helicopter artwork depicting their design for the LHX competition, what became the RAH-66 Comanche. Note that this design featured unusual curved, swept sponsons and a NOTAR (no tail rotor) tail.

belllhxsart

The full resolution version of this scan has been made available for $4 patrons at the APR Patreon.

 Posted by at 3:53 pm

Trouble over Vulcan

 Hmm..., news, projects, rockets, spacecraft, ಠ_ಠ  4 Responses »
Apr 182015
 

Earlier this week, the United Launch Alliance announced the development of the semi-reusable “Vulcan” launcher meant to replace the likes of the Delta IV. vulcan1Regardless of the merits or problems with this new design, there’s one issue that may cause prompt legal trouble:

Paul Allen Launches ‘Vulcan Aerospace’ to Boost Private Space Travel

vulcan2

Vulcan Aerospace will operate the “Stratolaunch” booster system now being built in California. vulcan3Vulcan Aerospace, it turns out, is part of Vulcan, Inc., which was formed in 1986 and has a trademark on the “Vulcan” name. vulcan4And Vulcan, Inc, seems like it wants to enforce that.vulcan5

Ooops.vulcan6

You’d think ULA would have checked on that. vulcan7 The article says that ULA looked into the name and found no legal issues… but that seems to perhaps be not entirely correct.vulcan8

 

 Posted by at 3:03 am

Nitrogen FTW

 Hmm..., news, politics  27 Responses »
Apr 172015
 

This took long enough:

Oklahoma Governor Signs Bill Allowing Nitrogen in Executions

Roughly 80% of the air you breathe in is nitrogen. Additionally, nitrogen is effectively inert… what you breathe in, you breathe out. Consequently, unlike carbon dioxide which is a biologically produced waste product, your lungs essentially ignore nitrogen. If the partial pressure of nitrogen goes up or down, your lungs don’t really care.

So if the nitrogen percentage goes up to 100%… your body doesn’t react. Unlike a small increase on CO2, your physiology doesn’t freak out. There no discomfort or pain with increased nitrogen. The only real effect if that it displaces the oxygen in your blood, and then in your brain. And the result of that is that within a few seconds, you simply pass out, and peacefully to most accounts. And within a few minutes, you are brain dead.

Breathing in nitrogen (or helium, freon, a few other gasses) is just about the most peaceful way to go. As a bonus, nitrogen is cheap, plentiful and easily produced. Unlike the chemicals used for lethal injection executions, nitrogen can be had from many, many sources. Unlike lethal injection chemicals, there’s no way to screw up nitrogen… just strap a mask over the face and turn it on. There is no such thing as a mammal that could possibly survive more than a few minutes on pure nitrogen, so there’s no chance of botched executions.

So why has it taken this long for it to be made available as a means of execution?

 Posted by at 5:01 pm
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