Several billion years from now, right about the time the US Federal Debt is paid off, the Milky way and Andromeda galaxies are going to collide and eventually merge into one bigger galaxy. Very likely there will not be even a single collision of actual stars, but the collision of gas clouds could result in some spectacular star formation events. Start getting ready soon to avoid the last minute rush.
A Russian company is apparently providing “hoverbikes” to the Dubai police. The bikes are overgrown quadcopters with nicely exposed rotors, perfect for chopping into bystanders.
To be sure, these things look cool, but I’m just as glad that I’m not one of the cops beta testing them.
The payload seems to be about 100 kilos, flight time about 30 minutes. That’s really not too shabby. Come back in a few years and these things might really be some kind of practical; extend the arms some, increase the rotor size (meaning a lower disk loading and a somewhat quieter system), improve the batteries and computer system, shave off weight with new/better composite structures, and you might have something that could be hauled around on modified ambulances and/or fire trucks for rescues from buildings and in the back end of beyond. Militaries could well want them, especially if they are optionally-manned.
An apparently pre-Mercury “space capsule” design from Rocketdyne. I am somewhat dubious, though… I suspect it might be less “space capsule” than “high altitude capsule.” Nothing about it screams “re-entry vehicle;” rather it look like something that might have been hauled to the edge of space by a large balloon. The pressure suits worn by the occupants look like something to be worn by a U-2 pilot; there sure is a whole lot of wasted volume in there and it would be odd for a capsule meant to operate in zero-g to have a ladder in it.
Rumors have swirled for decades that the footage might exist somewhere…
In short: footage was trimmed after the premiere by Kubrick, who felt that the 17 minutes slowed the pacing of the flick. From the brief descriptions of the bits cut… yeah, they actually seem pretty dull, likely to add little to the story. There’s no interest in recutting the footage back into the movie to make a new “directors cut” or some such, but a lot of hope that it’ll show up on a future Blu Ray release. The footage was found in a vault in a Kansas salt mine, and is apparently in pristine condition.
For all the arguments about whether the BFR-based suborbital/fractional-orbital transport system is technologically or economically feasible, there’s one firm argument that can be made that says that it’ll never become successful: the TSA and similar government bureaucracies.
If you are a resident of Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina or Washington, come January 22, 2018, you’ll actually need to have something like a passport to hop a flight to somewhere else in the US, because your state issued drivers license/ID card ain’t up to federal snuff. Come October 1, 202, other states may also no longer be able to use their drivers licenses.
According to the DHS, here’s a current map of which states are in compliance. Presumably a lot of the states in blue – under review – will be approved by 2020, but who knows.
In Britain, you can actually be arrested for posting comments that “cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to another.”
Once again: you can be arrested for annoying someone. Couple that with the BritGuvs determination to crack down on vaguely-defined “far right” speech online, and hoo boy, glad I’ve got that First Amendment thing. Here, when some idiot troll starts causing annoyance, I can simply hit the “ban user” button and the problem is solved. Or, heck, simply ignore them. But in Britain? Call the cops, I guess, someone said something I didn’t like.
No, no, no way in hell that this sort of system could *ever* be abused, nosiree.
An interesting summary of some of the many laws regarding speech and computers in the UK includes a paragraph on the communications Act of 2003:
Sending by means of the Internet a message or other matter that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character; or sending a false message by means of or persistently making use of the Internet for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety is guilty of an offence liable, on conviction, to imprisonment. This wording is important because an offence is complete as soon as the message has been sent: there is no need to prove any intent or purpose.
Say, that’s neat. You can be arrested and sentenced to imprisonment for annoying someone without even having intended to.
Sadly, even Utah isn’t immune from the scourge of the easily offended delicate snowflake. The local news last night had a story about a guy who set up a Halloween display (Halloween is *big* in Utah… I’d say it’s right up there with Christmas in terms of interest, enthusiasm and maybe even money). His original display? I larfed my keister off. Because it’s funny, that’s why:
Having just watched “The Purge: Election Day” less than a week ago, I got the gag. But apparently there are a lot of humorless would-be British-style speechcops out there in Facebookland, and even in the guys own neighborhood.
People saw the “MAGA” and promptly assumed that the homeowner was promoting racist violence. Oy.
As a result of the online and IRL backlash, the homeowner changed the display, rewording to to be more accurate to the tagline of the movie:
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As sad as this tale was here in Utah, imagine if the guy had been living under British laws. He could have *easily* been arrested, especially since the people who were offended – or at least who pretended to be – claimed that the message was right wing.
FFS. If you can’t have fun with murder and bloodshed and horror on Halloween… what *can* you have fun with?
Still, the laws are what they are. One can hope that people in Britainland will start overloading the police with complaints about *everything* online that annoys them. How about online photos of Communist mass murdering psychopaths on Irish postage stamps? Surely that’s annoying to any Brit who suffered directly or indirectly at the hands of communism.
I’m looking to take quality screenshots, and I think the online versions of the episodes would make for better image quality than screenshots from the DVD burner I use to record episodes. Fox has the episodes available online shortly after they air, but I can’t figure out how to download them to view them on something better than my dinky netbook.
Last nights episode, for example:
https://www.fox.com/watch/68822e236dc85f8578b4354894a471bd/
There is a long history of putting various monsters from pop culture on postage stamps. Frankenstein’s monster, Dracula, the Mummy, various critters from myth and folklore.
Well, Ireland has added a new monster to the mix:
Sure, why not. Throw in a Nazi or two as well, so long as you’re celebrating leaders of genocidal ideologies.
Listening to the radio earlier, I heard someone mention Woody Allen. That’s a name I don’t think on too often, even though I know he’s all kinds of famous.
Back when I was in college, I knew a feller who was from New York City somewhere. And to him, Woody Allen was the height of comedy. But when I think back to any and everything I’ve ever seen from Allen… none of it was funny. Not even a little bit. It’s not like “this was a joke that fell flat,” more like “I am watching comedy based on dialog, but it’s in a foreign language.”
For my own self, that seems to be the explanation: he’s from an alien culture. “Seinfeld” and “Friends” were two hideously popular comedy shows that never once made me laugh… and I think it was due in large part to them being highly invested in their own alien cultures (NYC and LA, if memory serves).
So, yeah. I tried thinking back to anything I ever saw of Woody Allens that made me laugh, and I came up empty. Actually, for a moment there I thought I had something, but then I realized that I was actually thinking not of woody Allen, but then I realized that I was actually thinking of Marty Feldmans “Igor.” So… nuthin’.
So… is Allen funny to anyone else? It might be interesting to map out where and when. Mel Brooks, after all, made some astonishingly funny movies. And then he made a bunch of astonishingly unfunny movies. So there might be a time factor. Perhaps Allen was similarly funny at one time but not another.
Well, *THAT* was dark.
Once again it was very much a Star Trek sort of episode, but it had some very non-Star Trek moments. From the alien religious service that featured something they *never* showed on Trek, to the message at the end: you really probably aught to have killed the children. Yikes.
It was awesome.
It did present what I’ve always thought was just about the only motivator for interstellar war that makes any sort of sense: religion, or something like it. If interstellar travel is s difficult and expensive as we currently foresee it being, then interstellar warfare would be ludicrously unlikely. It would consume an entire solar systems economy for centuries, for no good purpose. If, on the other hand, interstellar travel becomes as easy as its shown in Star Trek/Wars, then most of the motives for war vanish… sure, the Klingons can get *here* relatively easily, but the universe is essentially infinite. The motives of power and resources pretty much vanish in a world of infinite area and stuff.
But if you throw in religion, then interstellar warfare becomes less ludicrous (from a certain point of view). If your god tells you to conquer the whole universe, why, you go and do it.
And f you throw religion into the mix, then reaching an understanding with the aliens could become *real* difficult. In TNG+ Trek, somehow or other humanity has become essentially entirely atheist… something I really doubt. But everybody *else* in the Trek universe? They’re all religious (and it seems that each species has a grand total of *one* religion). But all the Trek religions seem to play well with each other, with virtually nary an interaction. But the great thing about “The Orville:” the Krill religion does *not* play well with others. it started off looking bad, and by the end of the episode… it doesn’t look like it’s going to get any better.
Originally it looked like the Krill were going to be the Klingons of The Orville. But the Klingon religion, what of it has been shown, seems to involve a lot of wrastlin’ around and drinkin’ and partyin’. The Klingon religion seems like it would accept non-Klingons. the Klingon *culture* seems like it would accept non-Klingons who adopt the Klingon culture. The Krill? Not so much.
So, yeah. I continue to like “The Orville.” Even in a jokey show, they cover some really pretty disturbin’ stuff, while still being optimistic.