Wednesday, January 04, 2012

NASA Debunks the 2012 Doomsday

Unless you have been in a coma for an extended period, you have heard about the interpretation of the end of the Mayan long count calendar, as a doomsday event prediction.

If this is your cup of tea...fine. I really don't want a heart to heart with a true believer on the coming apocalypse, but I thought it might be entertaining to look at some of the ways that have been put forth, that would bring about the end of times.

There is of course the rogue planet "Nibiru" or "Planet X". (from the msnbc article)


  • Self-proclaimed Nibiru expert Nancy Lieder, who says she is in contact with the aliens from Zeta Reticuli, first said Nibiru would cause widespread disaster in May 2003, only to change it to Dec. 21, 2012.
Astronomer Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object program say that Planet X is the darling child of pseudo-scientists "who don't seem bothered by a complete lack of evidence,".

You really have to like this one... because it really highlights how much common sense someone has to ignore to support their belief system.  Case in point is that any body capable of destroying Earth would have to be in the magnitude of the Mars sized impactor that created Earth's moon is a pretty difficult thing to hide this late in the game.  Something that big and that close would already be visible to the naked eye.  But what about something smaller, say the size of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago?   "There are no known near-Earth objects in 2012 that present a credible risk to Earth," Yeomans said. "None, zero, zip, nada."

Or how about this cosmic alignment that is to take place December 21st? The sun will align with the center of the galaxy and Earth and this alignment will bring about radical change on Earth.  My problem is that doesn't this already happen twice a year anyway?

How about the poles flip flopping causing compasses to go haywire and magnetic sensitive animals would get lost and possibly die out.   This one is interesting because there is evidence that the magnetic poles have flopped in the past.  Fortunate for us, our over-sized moon helps support the Earth's poles from wild perturbations so that leave magnetic poles.  Their period of reversals is about 500,000 years, not between reversals but once the process begins...yep, extremely slllooooooooooooooooooooooow.   "... no evidence of a flip on Dec. 21, 2012" states astronomer Yeomans.  

Still in the face of evidence to the contrary, some are continuing to become more and more frantic about the coming world destruction.  Read the complete MSNBC article here for more.

China Still Aiming for a Manned Moon Mission

Here is a cool IO9 article concerning China's continuing plans and efforts to put a man on the Moon.

The Chinese report really hasn't said anything new.  Speculation has it that they are still looking at putting a man on the surface of the Moon by  2025.  Even talks this vague has some people speculating about the future of American space efforts.  I have to side with those concerns.  The USA has abdicated it's place as a manned power in space.  The corpse just doesn't know enough to lay down yet.  Harsh yes, but no less true.

Former NASA administrator Michael Griffin continues to be actively vocal about NASA's lack of foresight and enthusiasm for a manned presence.  Griffin  has gone on record saying that China's space efforts would "leave the United States in its wake;"

Griffin said  at NASA oversight committee meeting last September: (from the article)


  • In my opinion, China understands what it takes to be a great power...They are a near-peer competitor of ours and I would worry very much about the future of this nation if we were not — and if we were not seen by all — to be a world leader.
read the IO9 article here

Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Review: Captain America - the First Avenger

Captain America - the First Avenger

Starring

Chris Evans as Steve Rogers - Tommy Lee Jones as Colonel Chester Phillips,
Hugo Weaving as Johann Schmidt - Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter
Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes - Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark
Neal McDonough as Dum Dum Dugan - Derek Luke as Gabe Jones
Stanley Tucci as Abraham Erskine - Kenneth Choi as Jim Morita
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury

Running time 124 minutes

I think that anyone who is even remotely familiar with Captain America knows the origins of shield toting action hero. So I shan’t spend too much time on the obvious.

During the height of WWII Steve Rogers desperately wants to enlist, however being ill most of his life, is classified 4f while his pal Bucky has already received his deployment papers. In desperation Steve accept the offer of a German scientist to test a serum to create what is hoped will be a super soldier.

Just as the experiment seems to have succeeded a saboteur blows up the lab and kills the scientist who created the serum. Rogers catches the saboteur but without a program to create more soldiers and since the formula was lost in the explosion, Rogers hopes of becoming a soldier is dashed.

Through various machinations he finds himself in the USO and finally in Europe and finally embroiled in a rescue and a final mission to save the world.

I know I have really trimmed this movie down to a bare minimum but so much is based on the surprise reveal that if you haven’t seen the movie yet, I would hate to ruin it. Needless to say we watch Captain America slow evolve into what we remember his as. Chris Evans really grabs hold of the Steve Rogers persona. You never doubt for a minute that he is the Captain. The action is often cartoonish or better comic-bookish, but doing it straight and not camping the action or the characterizations makes it so much easier to suspend belief. We have seen so many done just for the payday lately, Captain America is certainly a breath of fresh air.

Its the extras that have me baffled! I rented the blu-ray under the impression that everything would be better. Not true! I received the DVD version of the same movie and it was loaded up! Everything I would want in a disk. Director comments, shorts on making of the costume and others, while the blu-ray gave me bupkiss. Very disappointing but if you are just renting for the movie blu-ray is fine but if you want the works, consider dvd.

So counting the dvd and blu ray together the overall movie would get a solid 8, either way plenty watchable. Can’t speak to the 3d, but even without it’s fine.

Monday, January 02, 2012

Antipodean Issue 163 Now Online

The January 2012 issue of the Australian online flash fiction magazine issue 163 is now online and ready for your reading pleasure.   Ten excellent examples of the flash fiction art.  Enjoy!  


The Lightning Gun by Antoinette Rydyr

Bugsy! by Julie Wornan

What If by Christine Gladstone

Changes by Eleni Konstantine

Trathh by David Scholes

Another Day Another 1000 Students At Animal University by Shaun A. Saunders

When The Alphabet Vomits On A Birth Certificate by Jamie Richter

Wings by Sue Clennell
 
The Candidate by Des McNicholas
 
Shipwrecked by Mark Webb

Beam Me Up episode 294 now online

This week’s episode, 294, is the last for 2011, not that I do anything special, but I do try to fill the hour with entertainment and information.

First is a song from John Anealio from his new Season’s Greetings, called Winter’s Day, which seemed appropriate! 

Next is an short article from Earthsky with more information on the discovery of massive black holes. 

Afterwards we travel to the Beam Me Up Blog @ wrfrbeamEup.blogspot.com. First an article concerning a newly discovered galaxy that is only slightly younger than the universe itself and has some very interesting characteristics! Next the LHC has been successful in finding a new quantum state/particle called Bottomonium…..honest….. I found this funny short film for a flash mob gathering in Times square promoting the new Star Wars game The old Republic. A group of costumed players froze in the middle of an epic lightsaber battle with an interesting twist! And after being ultra top secret classified for 45 years the Hexagon project has finally been declassified. Hexagon proved to be an ultra secret spy satellite project that virtually no on had ever heard about!

Stories this week are KJ Kabza’s Get Happy. How do you define happiness or the meaning of anything when anything is possible and everyone is omnipotent.

And Raven by Susanna Willis a dark fantasy tale of guardian ravens, who protect the sleeper from all form of nocturnal evil – from the pages of the Australian flash fiction magazine Antipodean.