Get ready to laugh.
And…
Haw! That’s some funny, funny stuff right there, I don’t care who you are.
Heh. Dumb people, amiright?
The first episode of The Expanse is now available for viewing on YouTube. It’ll premiere on the Syfy channel on December 14. I haven’t watched it yet… I just downloaded it (half a gigabyte) but I’ve got to get back to work now.
UPDATE: I watched it, and was glad I did. It’s a beautiful effort; it starts with a woman floating in zero-g, with her hair floating around her. The hair was likely CGI, but it seemed pretty effectively done. People moving around in zero-g was mostly accomplished with the traditional “magnetic boots;” this was likely done for budgetary reasons, but it was still done well… the walking was done to look somewhat difficult and slow, as it really would be. The story seemed to be pretty close to the book. The visuals were generally spectacular.
Blue Origin seems to have flown their New Shepard craft yesterday… booster rocket and capsule. The video shows the launch, a CGI version of the separation, video of the capsule landing and video of the booster landing. The booster landing video, especially the view at 2:39, is just about the sportiest ride imaginable that doesn’t end with an Incident Review Board.
In some ways this is similar to the SpaceX Falcon 9 + Dragon capsule. Important difference is the much lower performance of Blue origins system… straight up into space, but no attempt at orbital flight (and nowhere near capable of it). But with a second stage… who knows.
If you turn on a TV, you can’t help but notice the plethora of 80’s flashbacks. Shows like “Halt and Catch Fire” are set in the 80’s; others like “Moonbeam City” are designed to look like an 80’s art school exploded all over the screen. Cartoons like “Regular Show” and “Gravity Falls” hearken back to the 80’s with regularity. As a teen of the 80’s, this is somewhat amusing… after spending *my* childhood being inundated with 50’s and 60’s nostalgia, it’s my turn, I guess.
But come on, sometimes people take this too far. Like today, when the news breaks that NATO and Russian military forces are going at it.
It seems a Russian SU-24 (essentially their equivalent of the F-111) violated Turkish airspace near the Syrian border and the Turks promptly shot it down. Of the two crew, at least one is definitively dead; rumors are that both crew were shot from the ground while still in their chutes by Turkmen Syrian rebel forces.
Additionally, a Russian Mil-8 (possibly a rescue chopper sent to get the crew) went down on the Syrian side of the border, either due to mechanical failure or ground fire; rebels are reported to have blown up the chopper once on the ground. The video below seems to show this; a TOW missile is used to take out the grounded helicopter at some considerable distance. Trigger warning: repeated use of The Phrase That Pays after the explosion.
In 1963 the Curtiss Wright Corporation ran an ad in Missiles & Rockets magazine illustrating their participation in the Titan III/Dyna Soar program. The main illustration in the ad depicts the launch vehicle in flight; it is not, sadly, a wholly accurate depiction. The N2O4 thrust vector fluid tanks for the SRBs aren’t included, nor are the separation motors; the two engine bells on the Titan core are shown clocked out of alignment. Still, a reasonably nice illustration.
In 2016, astronomers will watch a distant supernova burst forth. This sort of thin usually comes as a surprise, because the subject goes from being a bright star – something incredibly difficult to make out individually over intergalactic distances – to a brilliant point that outshines the host galaxy in a matter of seconds to hours. So how can astronomers know that one will be coming months in advance? Because they’ve already seen it.
In short: in November, 2014, a supernova was discovered in a very distant (9 to 14.4 billion lightyears, based on redshift) galaxy. What made it unique is that the galaxy was directly behind a closer (about 5 billion lightyear) galaxy cluster. Normally the closer galaxy cluster would obscure the further one, but due to the effects of gravity lensing, the image of the distant galaxy was replicated at least six times. The six images of the galaxy are distorted and scattered around the periphery of the cluster. But given the *vast* distances involved, even the slightest difference in the path lengths lead to measurably different trip times. Four of the images showed the supernova within a few days of each other; another image is though to have shown the supernova perhaps 20 years ago. But a sixth image is predicted to show the supernova burst forth in 2016.
Because reality is awesome, that’s why.
Apparently all the swag and educational/career opportunities that famed hoaxer “Clock Boy” Ahmed Mohammad received from his slightly re-purposed commercial digital clock was not enough to satisfy him and/or his family. They are now suing the taxpayers of Irving, Texas for $15 for the usual “emotional distress” reasons.
In case anyone has forgotten, Ahmed took an old digital clock, removed it from it’s plastic case and put the guts in a new metal case. Originally it was battery & wall-cord powered, but in its new configuration it only worked with the cord, which makes the choice of a conductive metal pencil case a dubious one. He took the piece of junk to school and claimed to have “invented” it; he plugged it in in class with an alarm set to go off during class, disrupting the class. The clock was examined and promptly found to be not a bomb; but it was determined that Ahmed had tried to make something that other people – my guess would be his fellow students – might think was a bomb and be freaked out by it. As a result the police became involved, as is normal and proper whenever there’s even the lamest, least-likely bomb threat at a school. As a result of properly playing the media, Ahmed was transformed from a prankster with minimal engineering skills into an engineering genius, inventor and victim of racism. He and his family have scampered off to Qatar and are suing Irving from a distance.
Back in June, I posted about a 1/9 scale “Hulkbuster” toy (from “Avengers: Age of Ultron”) that cost a whopping $840. Now comes word of a 1/6 scale Hulkbuster (50% bigger than the earlier Hulkbuster), which would be 21 inches tall. It’s cheap at a low, low $825; less than the earlier one because this one is plastic while the 1/9 version is diecast.
It’s available HERE.
I shudder to imagine how much of a nuisance I would have made of myself to my parents had this sort of thing been available when I was a kid (and were I a Marvel fan). I do wonder what it says about modern society that there really is a market for dolls/action figures that cost a months mortgage… how many of these are destined to become the toys of actual children as opposed to toys for adults… or destined to be just the collectors items of adults, never to be opened until after the inevitable estate sale?
A few weeks ago, Joel Hodgson announced a Kickstarter to raise funds to resume production of Mystery Science Theater 3000. One one hand… cool, more MST3K! On the other… almost none of the original writers/actors were coming back. No Dr. Forrester, no Pearl Forrester; Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo would have to be re-voiced. So, I was torn.
Until today, when I read that Joel had decided upon who should be the new Mad Scientist on the show: Felicia Day.
This… can work.
Day has confirmed on Twitter that she’ll be playing “Kinga Forrester.”
Yes it’s true, I am going to play Dr Forrester’s daughter on new @MST3K! Will terrorize the hell outta @jonahray! https://t.co/yjp6f8QzMk
— Felicia Day (@feliciaday) November 23, 2015
Interesting vid of a B-1 being refueled. The air seems to be something other than glass-smooth. The skin around the refueling receptacle looks more scratched-up than the paint around my cars door lock.