Sesame Credit

 AARRRGH, Forward!, Gah., Hmm..., politics, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Aug 262018
 

Well, this sucks for the Chinese. How long till it sucks for us?

Of course, with any system like this there will be ways to game the system. But even though there will be people who will try to find ways to stick their finger in the systems eye while still racking up high scores, most people will almost certainly just go along with it.

A system like this would be an easy way for a nation to enact the equivalent of tariffs without actually violating trade agreements. Just make it o that people didn’t *want* to buy furrin stuff, as seems to be the case in China where you lose points for buying Japanese anime.

As the video points out, this, unlike a lot of commie ideas for social control, works on “positive” reinforcement rather than the constant threat of direct punishment, all while making the actual enforcement system be the peer pressure of your friends and neighbors rather than the government itself. This is pure evil genius.

 Posted by at 10:13 pm

“2001” in IMAX: A Review

 art, awesomeness, blather, history, Hmm..., science fiction, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Aug 262018
 

Go see it.

I’ve been waiting for decades for the chance to see “2001” on a large screen, and finally saw it tonight: it was fantastic. It’s 4K, not IMAX 70mm, so the resolution is *not* *quite* perfect; from time to time pixelation could be detected. But on the whole the image was excellent and the sound was always fantastic.

One thing that was a good news/bad news thing: I went with two friends, and we were the only ones in the theater. I would not expect a 10PM showing on a Saturday night to be a particular dead time at the theater, but there it was. That made the experience great for us, but it makes the showing of movies like “2001” on such a power-hungry format as IMAX seem a little financially dubious. I suspect a lot of it has to do with the fact that I’ve seen no advertising for this. Not a single TV commercial, nothing in papers, no trailers before other movies. The only reasons my friends were even aware of it was because I  brought it up… and one of them is as big of a “2001” fan as I am, and for as long (probably since February, 1977).

I must admit I giggled like a soyboy opening a useless electronic gadget when the MGM logo gave way to the image of the sun emerging behind the moon emerging behind Earth. It was then that I knew that This Was Going To Be Awesome. And it was. The sight of Space Station V revolving in its full glory was just flat out astonishing. Seeing it this way allowed me to notice details I’ve never caught before… when the Orion III first appears on screen, you can actually see people moving behind the side passenger windows. I’d always thought that it was strictly a static image, but there the stewardess was.

This is the IMAX theater during the movie. Two people standing, one taking the photo… that’s it. Gotta be disappointing for the theater owners if nobody else.

So, get yourself to the nearest IMAX theater showing “2001.” Probably won’t be there long, and it probably won’t be packed. But it *will* be a hell of a show.

So I’m probably going to have to break down and buy a 4K player and TV. Probably some time this winter when I can take money that would have otherwise been wasted on trifling piffles like heat and food, and put them to some better use. Anybody have a recommendation for an external 4K player that will plug into a computer and allow for good, clear, full-rez screenshots?

 

 Posted by at 1:28 am

Rocketdyne nuclear-electric spacecraft art

 APR, nukes, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Aug 252018
 

A piece of 1960’s (published in a book in 1967, but it looks older than that) artwork depicting a five-man nuclear-electric spacecraft. heading to Mars. The spacecraft is long for radiation shielding purposes; at the far distant forward end is the reactor, with the crew and ion engines in the conical section in the tail. Between the ends is a long boom attached to which are the propellant tanks and two large radiators. This is more or less the propulsion system and layout originally planned for the spaceship “Discovery” from the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey,” with the difference that the ion engines were on the other side of the crew module, and the spacecraft “towed” the reactor and radiators, rather than pushing them.

 Posted by at 11:44 pm

My favorite Fark comment in a while

 blather, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Hmm..., humor, Meh., politics  No Responses »
Aug 252018
 

From this thread:

Hey guys, look at the people who have stopped saying “hey guys”

This is a discussion over this article:

The Problem With ‘Hey Guys’

Where people are ulcerating over the fact there is no adequate gender-neutral equivalent of “guys” in American English, and boy, isn’t it just terrible that sometimes females and female-identifying humanoid beings are sometimes referred to with that masculine term which is so very, very hurtful. Or some damned thing, it’s hard to parse SJW bullcrap.

Anyway, right at the beginning of the Fark thread is this nugget of wisdom:

If I say “hey, guys, let’s …” anybody who takes offense at the word “guys” should consider him/her/itself not invited.

Damned skippy.

It would give me a warm fuzzy to see a situation where someone says “Hey, guys, let’s go do X, Y, Z,” some blue-haired matronizing Child Of Wokeness takes immediate and vocal offense, and the original speaker, without missing a beat or changing tone or attitude, simply points of that the COW is, indeed, not invited.

 Posted by at 1:03 pm

So it has come to this

 AARRRGH, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, news, politics, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Aug 242018
 

Conor Daly loses Lilly Diabetes sponsorship over remark his father made over 30 years ago

Conor Daly is a NASCAR driver. His father used the “n-word” BEFORE CONOR DALY WAS BORN, and as a consequence Conor Daly is being perpetu-punished for it.

I was under the impression that in modern western societies we don’t punish children for their parents misdeeds. I guess I was wrong.

As scummy as this story is, though, imagine the fantastic opportunities to sow utter chaos. Take your least-favorite political figure: what do you think the chances are that they have a thief or a rapist or a murderer or a communist in their family tree?

 Posted by at 11:04 pm

1977 “2001” promo

 art, awesomeness, history, science fiction, youtube  No Responses »
Aug 242018
 

Here’s another one… this time advertising what is apparently the first TV airing of “2001.” This occurred on February 13, 1977… a few months before “Star Wars” hit the theaters. This actually surprises me a little… this must have been the first time I saw “2001,” but I can’t remember a time when I *didn’t* have “2001” in my life. I must’ve been exposed to “2001” via some other means prior to this, though I can’t really imagine how. Stills showed up in magazines, people talked about it… that sort of thing, I suppose.

I shudder to imagine just what a mess a TV broadcast would have made of “2001.” Pan & scan, edited for time, resolution dropped to crap-level, chopped up for commercials… bleah. Well, one makes do with what one has.

I do also recall getting an HBO movie guide (anyone else remember getting those and actually being excited to see what HBO would show next month?) that advertised “2001” on the last page as coming in the *next* month and going kinda buggo over being able to see “2001” multiple times.

 Posted by at 5:12 pm

“2001” trailers

 art, awesomeness, history, news, science fiction, youtube  No Responses »
Aug 232018
 

Here’s a contrast.

First up: a 1967 trailer for 2001. It shows what happens when the people making the trailer have almost nothing to go on… some stills, some scraps of film and little else. The music comes from the Rod Taylor “The Time Machine” if i’m correct.

 

And on the other end of the spectrum, the modern trailer for the IMAX re-release of “2001,” due out tomorrow Friday, August 24.

Giggitty!

 Posted by at 6:17 pm
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