First off this week, is a simple
question. Does anyone else hate the new Space.con layout as much as I do? It’s
just irritating. I’m used to following a story there, and then hitting the home
page link, which now apparently doesn't exist. Why do these sites, (Google mail
included in this here this week with their new silliness also), always have to
change things are working perfectly fine. Anyway, on to the weekly rundown.
3D PRINTED ROCKET ENGINES?
Yeah, you’re reading that
correctly. NASA and Florida-based
company Aerojet Rocketdyne put the injector which was built using 3D printing technology
through a series of hot-fire trials, agency officials announced last week. They
crafted the injector by using high powered lasers to liquefy and fuse metallic
powders into the desired shape and structure. Now these injectors usually take a year or
more to manufacture (which frankly seems like a very long time to me). But by
using 3D printing or additive manufacturing as it is sometimes called in
certain areas, reduces the time to around four months, and decreases cost by
around 70%.
NASA's associate administrator for
space technology in Washington, D.C. Michael Gazarik, had this to say in a
statement. "NASA recognizes that on Earth and potentially in space,
additive manufacturing can be game-changing for new mission opportunities,
significantly reducing production time and cost by 'printing' tools, engine parts
or even entire spacecraft. 3D manufacturing offers opportunities to optimize
the fit, form and delivery systems of materials that will enable our space
missions while directly benefiting American businesses here on Earth.”
Looking to print an entire ship? I
do believe he is getting a bit ahead of himself, but it does remind me of
something I read in a sci-fi book once. There was a type of hull that was
formed by a molding process, making it a one piece unit. I don’t remember where
exactly, but I think it was in book two of the Han Solo trilogy. Frankly, I Am
betting that in a few years, 10 at the outside, 3D printing will exist in
almost as many homes as computers did 10 years ago. Lets hope so anyway.
Personally, I want the food replicators refined and done for one simple reason.
When you AC blows up in this weather, it’s just too freaking hot to stand
around in a kitchen cooking. Yep, self-serving concept again here. But such
things would also work great for people that are disabled or old, etc. Not just
lazy excessive heat hating people like myself.
So maybe not so self-serving after all. Okay, it is.
NEPTUNE GETS A NEW MOON
Okay, so that isn’t quite accurate
there. It’s been there the whole time, but we just found it apparently. The moon is estimated to be about 12 miles in
diameter, and lies approximately 65, 400 miles from Neptune. It was discovered
by astronomer Mark Showalter while searching for moons inside the faint ring
fragments circling Neptune.
Showalter and his colleagues are working
on a name to propose to the International Astronomical Union, which has final
say in the matter. Which I do not feel is right. They found it; they should
have total freedom in naming it. And frankly, those stuck up prudes at the International
Astronomical Union shouldn’t have a bloody thing to say about it, unless of
course they were going to name it something extremely vulgar or silly. Maybe
they should get hold of that dirty planet killing death star wanna be Mike
Brown as well and get his permission before they name it anything also. He was
the driving force behind Pluto being demoted for those that don’t know the
name.
Showalter did have this to say about
the name however. "We haven't really gotten far with that. What I can say
is that the name will be out of Roman and Greek mythology and it will have to
do with characters who are related to Neptune, the god of the oceans."
At the moment, the newly found moon has
been designated S/2004 N 1, and is located between Larissa and Proteus. It has
an orbit time around Neptune of 23 hours.
STARCRASH BRINGS GOLD
No, I don’t mean the movie Starcrash with the lovely Caroline Munroe, (which was actually a better movie than
Star Wars which they ripped off horribly to make Star Crash), but by actual
super dense dead stars. And just so you
know, it is thought that this is possibly where all the gold on Earth has come
from. The origin of gold in the universe has long been a mystery, as it doesn't form in stars themselves. Edo Berger, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics and lead author had this to say.
"We estimate that the amount of
gold produced and ejected during the merger of the two neutron stars may be as
large as 10 moon masses quite a lot of bling!" (This is his statement remember, not mine. Bling. Really?) "To paraphrase Carl Sagan, we
are all star stuff, and our jewelry is colliding-star stuff."
Berger and his colleagues studied a
short gamma-ray burst; a class of explosions that are among the most luminous
known in the universe which was spotted by NASA's Earth-orbiting Swift
spacecraft in early June. This burst was
3.9 billion LY’s from Earth, and lasted only 2 10th’s of a second.
In the
aftermath of the burst, scientists noticed that the explosion gave way to a
gradually fading glow dominated by infrared light. The team thinks that this
comes from exotic radioactive elements. The team expects that the gamma-ray
burst ejected about one one-hundredth of a solar mass of material, with some of
it being gold. They also think that all the gold in the universe may have been
created in this fashion. If that is the case, then there were a lot of
collisions over time to put the gold throughout the universe, and it would also
explain why gold is so rare in the universe.
ARE WE REALLY MARTRIANS?
Maybe, and now we are going to try
and find out. A team of researchers from MIT, Harvard and Massachusetts General
Hospital (MGH) want NASA’s next Mars rover to probe the surface of Mars for
genetic material by analyzing soil and ice samples with a DNA-sequencing microchip.
Now finding signs of past life has actually already been considered a major
priority in the next mission to Mars. The next Rover is scheduled to launch in
2020, and there is talk that one of its main missions will be to search for
life there now, or recently extinct life, as in the last one million years or
so.
The study’s lead author Christopher
Carr (of MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences), had this
to say on the subject.
“If there’s life on Mars and it is
based on RNA and DNA, you would get not one but many sequences and you’d be
able to understand the extent of ‘relativeness’ of any Earth life. You could
use that to determine whether it’s contamination from Earth or whether it's
actual Martian life. That would also allow us to say how Martian life is
related to Earth life.”
Sure seems to me that there is a lot
of talk about this recently, where even a few years ago it was being said that
it was not possible. Amazing how things seem to change rapidly isn't it? I
still say they already know something that they haven’t told us. But then, I’m
naturally suspicious. Check out the
article, it is well worth a thorough read, believe me. As usual, I am just
giving the basis of it and that is it here in the rundown. Should be quite interesting if they ever tell
us the truth. But I doubt seriously anything went from here to there. Due to
the suns gravity alone, it would only be logical to assume that any life that
was transferred by meteorite collision would come from there to here. You see,
they too are starting to believe that life here, started out there. I seriously
doubt that even if they did find absolute proof that they would release it
anyway. There is this great conception of thought that if they did so
everything would run amok as religions were destroyed by knowledge. I’m not joking
on that, that really is a serious thought of way too many people in
governments. One of the big reasons that I say they know more than what they
are saying, and instead dragging it all out to try and prepare people for the
truth. At least my conspiracy theories are based on some kind of logic, and not
just a doctored picture of a robot head on the moon, or some crystal pyramid
thingy there used by the aliens to watch us. And for those that haven’t heard
those, they really are conspiracies that are out there being promoted as
absolute truth. Maybe I should do a weekly here on nothing but some of the
conspiracy theories of space, aliens, etc. Could probably have a few people
here, (Dave) either rolling on the floor laughing, or crying. Anyway, here’s the link to
the full article, with a lot more info than I have put here.
APOLLO 10 VOICE TRANSCRIPTION
Okay, not much to say about this, as
the title I put there describes it entirely. This is the transcript of the
Apollo 10 mission as recorded on the command module data storage equipment. Why
this was ever listed as confidential in the first place i will never know.
Anyway, it is available here at this link. It is also 506 bloody pages long. I
am not reading all that at the moment, as I just found the dang thing about an
hour ago actually. But I will be reading it, and wanted to list the link here
for anyone else that wants to check it out as well.
ASTEROIDS ANYONE?
No, not the old Atari game. They are
making a movie of that game. Why am I already dreading the very thought of
this. Oh well, at least they can’t destroy beloved hero’s with this one, like
happened with a few anime I could mention here, DBZ and Avatar for two. But
this apparently ids not a myth like i thought it was. Here’s what Di Bonaventura had to say about
the whole thing.
“Really, Asteroids is the one we’re
spending our time on now. The truth is, I love the title… when I look at that
project, that’s what I think about it, is I think about the scale of it and I
think about the possibility of it. It’s not a disaster movie. If we’re
successful at getting it made. It’s much more of a space opera. It’s like a
great sci-fi movie if we get it done right. It is not at all what people think
it is. People think, ‘Oh, the asteroid’s gonna hit the earth,’ and I have no
interest in doing that. That’s been done exceedingly well before. No, this
takes place in an asteroid belt, the whole movie.”
Man of Steel scribe David S. Goyer
has been brought on board now to rewrite the script. Uh yeah, and for good
reason. Here is what the original script was going to be about, apparently.
An
early synopsis for Asteroids suggested it would follow two brothers who have to
“go through a seminal experience to figure out their relationship, against this
huge backdrop.” That was back in 2009.
I’m not holding out much hope for
this to ever actually get made, but it probably will. But as I said, at least
they can’t destroy any beloved characters this time, and I won’t be seeking
revenge against certain people for that again. Nope, I am never going to let go
of what they did to Last Airbender, and especially not to my DBZ. Some people just need a beating for general
purposes.
DAWN OF THE APES.
Needless to say, I am not exactly a
fan of this rebooted series. I still prefer the original, as I usually do. Director Matt Reeves however is now letting a
few things slip out, basically due to Comic con. Here are two of the things he
had to say about it so far. The rest is in the article. Let’s start with whether the apes will be
talking in this one.
“Caesar talks at the end of the movie;
he has some level of speech. I wanted to make sure we’re continuing to go along
the path of evolution without missing it, it was so delicious to watch in the
first movie. It’s not like now they are talking in verse. Hopefully the movie
is emotional and thrilling as you watch the apes come into being.”
And as for the evolution of the apes
since Rise of the Planet of The Apes he had this to say.
“The world is larger, still growing.
For all of us that was exciting to explore, and bring in new performers to our
cast of apes, Toby Kebbell and other great actors along with Andy. The apes
story is a through-the-looking-glass way of looking at what we are. By what’s
going on in the internal lives of the apes we are exploring ourselves, our
impulses, our society. So much is roiling inside Caesar. He has a rational side
separate from the apes, they’re all instinct. We are seeing how Caesar becomes
this leader.”
I still prefer the original novel,
and the original movies to this. I also like the old quickly defunct live
action TV series more than this new reboot stuff they are doing now. But that
is just me I suppose. To be honest, I was much more impressed with the 2001 remake
of this than I am with the reboot going on now. Something about this just doesn’t
appeal to me very much. But since I know most of you seem to like this reboot,
I included it here for you all. Personally, I won’t be seeing this one till it
shows up on a used DVD fro a buck or two, or appears on Netflix or Amazon for
free. It just kind of falls into the Twilight movie area for me. And I despise
underwear model vampires, period. Needless to say, I will never be reviewing,
or watching the new Dark Shadows movie. I’ll stick with Frid when it comes to
that. The one, the only, the real Barnabas Collins. Anyway, here is the link to
the rest of what he had to say for all those that are interested in this.
HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE
Here is a series of new pics that
have been released for the sequel to Hunger Games. Now one thing that sounds a
lot better in the sequel is that it is supposed to have ultra-vicious, extra
nasty super games in this one. Yeah, right. I’ll believe it when I see it. If they want nasty, they should come and talk
to me or some other gamers about how to make mean, nasty, bloody, violent games
for this. Seriously, after watching every episode of Superjail multiple times,
I really doubt this movie will live up to the violent hype they are trying to
say that it will be.
The
new suits look pretty cool though. And there are a series of 11 pics on this
link that show the characters in them. Some of them look really good. I haven’t read
the books of this series yet, and here is why. I saw the movie first, and
frankly it wasn’t bad in my book at all. However, that means I have to stay
away from the books until the series has finished. If I don’t, I’d probably be
slamming it right and left right now. Once the franchise is done, I’ll be
reading the books. Actually, I’ll be reading book one after the second movie is
seen. I figure that way I won’t explode too much on things they did or shouldn’t
have done in the movie. Personally, I’m looking forward to the second movie.
But for a post-apocalyptic survival game, I really do think there needs to be a
lot more violence and bloodshed. I mean, Death Race 2000 actually had more
violence than the first movie of this franchise did.
But
since the president is trying to teach them all a lesson about revolting, this
one could get pretty nasty actually. Let’s hope so anyway.
THE FORMER
SCI-FI CHANNEL HAS FINALLY LOST IT ENTIRELY
Okay, we have all heard about
Sharknado by now I am sure. *Sigh.* This is about two new films coming to that
channel soon. And one of them is going to be a direct sequel to Sharknado
scheduled for sometime in 2014. Now don’t get me wrong, I actually kind of love
Asylum, as I am a super fan of low budget bad B movies. I actually loved
Starcrash to give you an example. And Asylum now and then actually turns out a
decent film, more or less. But it gets even better with the former sci-fi
channel. Have any of you ever been
actually embarrassed to talk about a movie that hasn’t even been made yet. Well
this time I am. Here is why.
Ghost
Shark
Here
is the synopsis of this what I am sure is going to be a waste of film.
”When
a young girl’s father mysteriously vanishes in the Gulf of Mexico, she becomes
obsessed with finding the truth behind his disappearance, only to discover that
the culprit is not only inhuman, but the ghost of a vengeful Great White Shark.
Now she must convince the local authorities to trust her wild claims and
identify the origins of the spectral predator if she wants to save her friends
and family from the unstoppable killing machine.”
I
rest my case here. The movie is scheduled for August 22nd. The trailer on the site this is from has been
removed, so the second link will be to IMDb where the trailer is available.
STAR TREK VS SILLY WARS
Okay, I liked the first Star Wars
movie. After that they just went to frack, especially the last three, or
prequels, whatever. Anyway, though the
two cannot even really be compared, everyone seems to want to do so, and
someone wrote up an article giving 5 reason why Trek is of course better than
that other one is. I will give one of their reasons here. It is number two on
their list, and one of the things I pointed out immediately when I got myself
to watch the first of the prequel things.
The
Force.
A
mystical energy field that surrounds us, that binds the galaxy together.
Remember that all. Well apparently old Ben had lost his freaking mind in 20 or
so years. Because according to the prequels it was bugs in the blood that did
it. Yeah I know there are people complaining that the history of Trek was
destroyed, but it wasn’t. In fact, the original Trek is still exactly as it
was, and still in existence. A separate timeline was created basically, and to
say it wasn’t makes no sense. Without that other time line, there would be no
old Spock, and he certainly would not remember what happened there. All Abrams
did was create a way to actually reboot the series without taking away from the
original. Whereas in Silly Wars, Lucas just simply rewrote the whole bloody
thing to the point that everything that had happened in the future now makes no
sense any longer. Now I am not a fan of Abrams, don’t get me wrong. I actually
don’t like the guy very much at all. But he did do a semi-decent job on Trek,
even though the true appeal of Star Trek, (thinking), was actually lost to
conform to the mentally deficient society of non-thinkers we have out there now
going to movies. Trek was never about big explosions, or excessive violence, or
a list of other things I could list here. But for an adventure sci-fi film, it
wasn’t bad at all. Hopefully, if it ever does return to the small screen, like
so many of us are hoping for after the franchise ends this time, it will return
to its proper roots of social thought, etc. Hey, I love action, and violence,
but let’s not overdo it with Trek here.
I
mean, lets really compare the two here. Man’s quest to understand his place,
compared to a brats insanity with severe daddy issues that likes kissing his
own sister. When it comes to Wars, I’ll say this. Give me Han, Chewie, and the
Falcon. The rest you can keep. I’ll take the Han Solo trilogy over the movies
any day of the week. But it was nice to see someone else agreeing with me out
there finally. Long live Trek. As for Wars, see you around; if you manage to
blind side me that is. I mean really. Hyperdrive is actually one of the
silliest things I ever heard of. At least in the way it was done in those
movies. And Lucas apparently doesn’t even know the difference between speed
measurements, and distance measurements. Personally, I think he should have
quit doing anything remotely related to sci-fi or fantasy after THX1138. And
that was a snooze fest in itself.
Well,
hope I got some info out there this week that you all didn’t know about yet. I’m
now going back to waiting till it is cool enough to try and get another couple
hours sleep in tonight again. At this rate, the Rundown may just end, as I go
the way of the wicked Witch in OZ. In other words, I think I am smegging
melting here. See you all next week folks, provided I am not a puddle by then.
