ABC Renews Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

That's what the buzz says from Sci-Fi Storm.  that ABC has committed to a second season of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", despite being up against stiff competition.  

One other surprise is in addition to the  S.H.I.E.L.D. order, ABC is also ordering a series called "Agent Carter"  -  Peggy Carter, was Steve Rogers love interest in Captain America: The First Avenger.  After Captain America "disappeared" Carter goes to work for the Strategic Science Reserve doing administrative while also secretly going on secret missions for Howard Stark.

Check out the article from Sci-Fi Storm HERE

NASA Wants to Terraform Mars?

That's what I read in this Gizmodo article .....wwwweeeeeeell terraforming may be stretching it, but NASA is considering sending plants on the next rover mission.  Nope, no furrows or holes with seeds in them.... there WILL be a modified Cubesat box with Earth air, dirt and a small handful of seeds from a plant that is a cousin to the mustard plant.  Oh and the box will be no where near Martian dirt but  positioned on the back of the rover (less and less glamorous ).   However this experiment, called the Mars Plant Experiment, would be entirely self-contained and will hopefully help lay the foundation for a long-term, sustainable base and possibly even colonization of Mars

Now don't go looking for a brand new rover on Mars, anytime soon.  NASA's next Mars rover, which is scheduled to launch in mid-2020 and land on the Red Planet in early 2021.

Read the Space.com article HERE

Soylent.....The End of Food As We Know it?

Here is an article link from the Boing Boing blog that I just could not resist!

Rob Rhinehart, a tech startup engineer running short of funds Rob decided to cut his monthly food bill that was upwards of 470 dollars a month. compiled a list of nutrients required for survival - ingredients like: carbohydrates, protein, lipids.A ll blended into a slurry of chemicals that his room mates remarked that it resembled gooey lemonade.

His genius though came from what he called the mixture,  Soylent, a wink and a nod to the reference from a science-fiction novel from the nineteen-sixties or the Bert Lancaster film of the same (well almost ) name from the 70s.

From the article,  this is an excerpt from an article called "The End of Food" by Lizzie Widdicombe where she notes in her article that Rhinehart started living on Soylent and blogged about his experiences in a post titled "How I Stopped Eating Food":

• The positive response that the post received convinced Rhinehart and his roommates to enter the synthetic-food business. “Last week, the first thirty thousand units of commercially made Soylent were shipped out to customers across America.

Complete Boing Boing article HERE

Short SF Film: Payload

Well it is no mystery now that I like Sci-Fi films and have a soft place (wait for it) in my heart (ha!) for the short venue.

So I came across this one while perusing through my article listings.  The premise is a dystopian future (not necessarily Earth) in the slums that have sprung up around the base of a space elevator.  The black market currency is..... well, you will find out.  

I would take a look at this short for sure.

BMU # 405 Now Online With the Conclusion to Dean Giles "Mad World"

Welcome to Beam Me Up episode 405.  This week is also a bit off the beaten track.

After my opening comments I play the closing music to “Ground Control to phyco-electric Girl”  and it is probably one of the most charming pieces for closing an anime episode that I heard in a long time.

Then from the Blog at wrfrbeameup.blogspot.com – ISS used for commercial concerns…. A short film that demonstrates how gravity works, what I like about this short is the demonstrator is not only enthusiastic about the subject matter but is also clearly an expert.

From there I talk with Justin, my anime guy, as we go over some of the recent titles as well as favorites and some classics.

And finally the conclusion to Dean Giles’ Mad World.

Thanks for listening.

Paul