Friday, June 07, 2013

Weekly Rundown

HEAT SEEKING ALIENS
            Not meaning they are heat seekers, but that we are hoping to find them by the heat that their civilization would give off.  This would be done by a new 1 billion dollar telescope that has been proposed that would be called Colossus. There’s a good reason for the name. The thing will have a 250 foot aperture. That’s double the size of any existing today.  It will use mirror technology in the form of thin mirrors, and a few large aperture mirror segments.  They estimate that it could pick out a city as far away as 60 – 70 ly’s away.  I know that doesn't seem like much, but it’s a start anyway.  First however they need the funding, which I hope they get. If they had the money today, they say they could have it done in 5 years. Anyone got a billion laying around I can borrow? Now I won’t put everything here as they discuss the Dyson Sphere possibilities and how alien civilizations could be using just that type of technology as well. One example would be a planet that was dark optically, but bright thermally. Such a situation would be evidence of an extraterrestrial civilization.


LIFE HERE STARTED OUT THERE    
            Yeah I know a lot of us accept the comet theory already as a pretty viable theory of how we all got here. We now have more proof that it is quite possibly what got us started though. A computer model was done of such an impacts effect on a comet crystal made up of water, carbon dioxide and other simple molecules.
            According to co-author Nir Goldman, a physical chemist at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in California, "Comets carry very simple molecules in them. When a comet hits a planetary surface, for example, that impact can drive the synthesis of more complicated things that are prebiotic, they're life-building." The theory that the life building molecules were carried here by a comet is not new, but the theory that comet impacts could have created those molecules is newer.
            They used a computer model to simulate a single comet crystal of hundreds of molecules. Comets are mostly dirty snowballs, so the simulated crystal started with mostly water molecules, but also included carbon monoxide, methanol, ammonia, and carbon dioxide.  They then simulated the effects of the crystal hitting the Earth's surface at various angles, from crashing into it directly to making a glancing blow. They followed the chemical changes in the crystal for about 250 picoseconds, about the amount of time the system needed to reach a steady state, where the proportion and type of chemicals in the system is stable. The huge jolt from the impact provided the energy needed to make complicated chemicals. So basically, we are starting to prove that life here really did start out there. Cool.


STRESS OF LIVING ON MARS
            How people live and work together on a mission to Mars may turn out to be one of the biggest challenges of deep-space exploration. So to simulate the experience of a crew stuck inside cramped quarters under stressful conditions, the nonprofit group. The Mars Society is planning a one-year mock Mars mission in the Arctic. It is to start in July of 2014. A six member crew will spend the next year living inside the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS). This station is a 25-foot-tall by 27-foot-wide cylindrical habitat on Devon Island in the high-latitude Canadian Arctic. This actually sounds like it would be very interesting, and actually sort of fun.  And here is why. They will be conducting field geology, and have to wear full space suits while doing so. They will also be doing other scientific research, as well as maintenance on the habitat and equipment. They want to simulate a real Mars expedition more closely than past mock missions, which were set under more comfortable conditions, and without such stringent research duties. The July 2014 mission is estimated to cost up to $1 million, will aim to provide information to help the planners of the first real-life trip to Mars and aid in the choosing of a leadership structure and promote healthy social interactions among the crew. Under directions from the Obama administration, NASA is aiming to send people to the vicinity of Mars in the 2030's, with a landing on the Red Planet to follow. As for the healthy interactions part, and keeping up moral, I think that would be relatively easy. I am basing this of course on my own loner personality here. But if we make sure they are supplied with enough recreational stuff, such as books, games, etc, I don’t see where the problem would be. I realize that they wouldn't have the privacy as here on Earth, but you can always shield off a small area for personal privacy. Something I thought about, though it may not work for a lot of people, would be to let them take dice and actually have a fantasy RPG session once a week or so. Or for that matter, they will have computers, so there are a lot of computer games that they could take as well. There so many ways to take entertainment with them, or send it there after them even. I think one of the biggest mistakes would be to send a group to Mars on a long stint, and then not keep them up to date as possible with things on Earth. News, entertainment, etc would be needed by the first people to go there. I mean, if they are there for a year let’s say, then at say 6-7 months in, when we send a supply pod there, we include the latest DVD’s, etc according to their likes. Hey, these people would be living heroes, and they should be treated as such. I’m tired of hearing all this nonsense about cost this and cost that. But I’ll avoid the waste spending here as it doesn't fit, plus I would be going on for hours if I did that.

            Okay folks, now on to the sci-fi portion. Things are a bit short this week, as my schedule is beyond insane, and sleep seems to be a nearly forgotten concept again. But here we go. 

SUPES WHOOPS ON ZOD
            I don’t care if they call him superman or not in this Nolan movie, he’s always going to be Supes to me. But the link here shows a really pretty cool trailer if you haven’t seen it. And you know, though I am still complaining about the suit, (and probably will till the day I die), I have to say this is the best scene yet in my opinion.  For those of you old enough to remember Jim Croce, you will remember a line from a song that says “you don’t tug on superman’s cape.” Well, I’d say a bigger one is to not threaten his mom, Ma Kent. That will get you seriously punched the frack out. So for all my initial complaining, they finally got my attention. Still don’t like the new outfit, but then I am a puritan when it comes to comics. Though even I have to agree that Wolverine in yellow spandex just wouldn't work on screen.  We’ll see. I’ll give it a fair shake. And there is no way it could be worse than Superman Returns. Even if they put him in pink undies, it would still be better than that movie. But check out the link and watch the clip. It’s only 1 minute 18 seconds long, and for all my complaining, I've watched this clip like 5 times. So folks, I do believe we have a pretty good movie coming. Even if they did destroy the uniform.

BEAST POUNDING MAGNETO?
            Looks that way in these photos. It’s the fully updated beast makeup and he looks pretty good. I am referring of course to X-MEN Days Of Future Past. Now I know there are a lot of you still screaming about First Class. Well, I handle it the easy way now. I simply gave up on anything in Marvel ever being done by the original story. (Such as Doom going into space with the FF.) That is when I just hung it up and gave up. So forget the original stories, and sit back and just enjoy whatever they do, and be happy we at least see our heroes on the big screen, and live action. At least they haven’t done to X-Men what they did to DBZ, Last Airbender, etc. Well, not yet anyway. Now if they mess up Doctor Strange if they ever do it again, then you’ll be hearing a rant and tirade that’ll make your ears blood, and a sailor blush. Yep, Doc Strange is still my favorite of all.

ANOTHER CENTIPEDE
            Okay folks. I love horror. I love zombies; Evil Dead (the original) is still a classic to me and always will be. Have all 3 actually and watch them on Halloween. That is actually when I got big into horror movies actually.  I even memorized all te words from the tape and freaked out a couple friends on a foggy night out in the woods camping. Yeah, I know, I have an evil streak sometimes. But it really was hilarious. Anyway, there is now going to be a 3rd Human Centipede movie. I stopped after the first one. Was going to watch the second one, but after what I heard, and other horror fans i know said don’t bother, and explained why, I haven’t yet. But now we are getting a 3rd one, and rumor mill is talking about a Centipede of 500 people. Really? Now that just seems to be going way over the line of horror, into utter silliness to me. But apparently a few big names are involved with this one. Eric Roberts for one, who seems to show up in nearly everything, and if you look at IMDb, I don’t know how the man gets any sleep at all. And apparently someone by the name of Bree Olson, who I guess is a porn star of some kind. Don’t watch porn, never did, and this is the first time I heard of her ever.  Even so, a 3rd one?  Really? I mean, I watch some sick and twisted stuff, but this is beyond even me actually.  Think I’ll be skipping this one, and just wait for the return of Superjail. At least that has some kind of semi sensible plot to it. If you consider extreme over the top hilarious violence in an anime show a plot. Anyway, here’s the link for any that are interested in this.

            And that is all for this week folks. Oh yeah. Almost forgot. 2 new shows premiering on the former sci-fi channel this Saturday night. Sinbad, and Primeval: New World. And continuum is back on Friday nights now on that channel as well. Catch you all next week again folks. Hopefully actually being awake at the time of writing this then. And please excuse all the spelling disasters this week. Auto check is off, and to be honest, I'm just too bloody tired to care right now. Later all.

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